ohmidog!

No, that’s not the ice cream man rolling down the streets of Lisichansk, a city of 100,000 in Ukraine.

It’s a crematorium on wheels, purchased by the city to more handily dispose of stray dogs — sometimes while they are still alive — as part of the country’s efforts to clean up its streets before next year’s Euro 2012 soccer championship.

(About two and a half minutes into the video above you can see city officials showing off their mobile crematorium.)

The vehicle is staffed by three employees — a driver, an oven operator and another who shoots strays with a syringe gun, paralyzing them.

The crematorium is capable of burning 40 kilos worth of dogs and cats at a time.

Lisichansk is not alone in trying to clear the streets of strays before the soccer championship,  being co-hosted by Ukraine and Poland.

The cities of  Kiev, Lviv, Kharkiv and Donetsk — all of which are hosting matches — have stray removal programs underway. In Kharkiv and Kiev, plans have been made to open shelters for strays found in the vicinity of Euro 2012 stadiums, but some other cities opt for extermination instead.

Sometimes, Lisichansk lends its mobile crematorium to neighboring  jurisdictions. How thoughtful.

Despite protests, from inside and outside the country, the stray removal program continues, and the mobile crematorium — which features temperatures of 900 degrees — keeps rolling.

A petition appealing to Ukrainian authorities to stop cremating live animals can be found on the website Care2.

According to the petition, Ukraine — rather than focusing on spaying and neutering and finding homes for strays — has long opted for less humane practices.

Stray dogs and cats were previously killed using an illegal poison called ditiline that paralyzed their respiratory muscles are paralyzed.

Officials consider the crematorium ” more modern” and “environmentally safe,” the petition says.

An 8-month-old cat deliberately set on fire — twice — by what a witness described as a group of young people was treated for serious burns and is now being montiored at Baltimore Animal Rescue & Care Shelter.

The city office of Animal Control received a call from a citizen who said she saw several children throwing rocks and bricks at the cat in the Garrison Avenue neighborhood. The witness said the children then poured liquid on the cat. The witness said she turned away, but when she looked back the cat was burning.

The cat was able to roll and put the flames out, but the children caught it and set it on fire a second time.

Despite her condition the cat, now named Gabrielle, was purring as the BARCS staff evaluated her, according to Jennifer Mead-Brause, executive director of BARCS.

BARCS, using money from its Franky Fund, sent Gabrielle to Everhart Veterinary Hospital for further evaluation.

Gabrielle is back resting at the shelter now, and a local animal rescue organization, Recycled Love, has agreed to take over the care of Gabrielle.

This case is being referred to police for further investigation.

Can a dog’s water bowl, sitting under a bright sun on a wooden deck, work like a magnifying glass and start a fire?

Apparently, if it’s made of glass, yes — at least that’s what firefighters in Bellevue, Washington suspect. Investigators blamed a house fire Sunday on the family dogs’ partially filled glass water bowl.

“It’s very unusual, but it’s not unheard of,” Lt. Eric Keenan, the department’s community liaison officer told the Seattle Times.

The 11-inch-diameter bowl was elevated above the wooden deck in a wire stand, Keenan said. “There was nothing else in that area that could be identified as a fire source — no smokers, no electrical devices.”

No one was home when the fire started. It destroyed the deck and badly burned the adjacent kitchen. The family’s two dogs were both apparently unhurt, Keenan said.