ohmidog!

A malnourished dog who was surrendered to a New Jersey humane society by a couple who said they found him in a trash bag is back up on his feet and continuing to recover.

The couple, meanwhile, turned out to be the dog’s owners — and they’ve been charged with animal cruelty.

Samurai, or Sammy for short, is a cocker spaniel. He was turned in at the Associated Humane Society in Tinton Falls last week, with an ear infection, skin infection, open wounds and with his fur so matted together he couldn’t walk, according to NJ.com.

This week, he took his first steps at the Red Bank Veterinary Hospital, where officials said he has also started eating on his own again.

Victor Amato, the chief humane law enforcement officer for the Monmouth County SPCA, said hundreds of calls have been received by people from around the world since the dog’s story hit the news — initially as the story of a rescued dog.

Keith Morgan, 56, of Brick, told staff at the humane society that he and his wife found the dog in a garbage bag on the side of the road.

Morgan, in interviews with media, said he opened the bag and “started to cry …I couldn’t understand that anyone could be that cruel … my heart dropped.”

For a while, the dog was named after his apparent savior.

Officials, however, learned by tracing the dog’s registration that the couple had actually owned the dog for at least nine years. Sammy is estimated to be 13 or 14 years old.

Keith Morgan was charged in Tinton Falls with animal cruelty by abandonment of a sick or maimed animal and filing a false report with law enforcement. He was also charged in Brick with interfering with an investigation and animal cruelty by failure to provide sustenance and causing unnecessary suffering.

His wifre, Shauna Ewing Morgan, 43,  faces similar charges in Tinton Falls and Brick.

Each faces a maximum of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine on each count. They are scheduled to appear in court March 27 in Brick and April 9 in Tinton Falls, where a judge will decide their sentence.

The animal hospital said a fund has been set up for Sammy, and donations can be sent to the Morgan/Samurai Fund at Red Bank Veterinary Hospital, 197 Hance Avenue, Tinton Falls, N.J. 07724.

(Photo: Red Bank Veterinary Hospital)

Nearly 150 dogs were seized from a rescue organization in Marion County, Oregon, early Monday, and its director was arrested and charged with 120 counts of animal neglect.

The Statesman-Journal reported that Alicia Marie Inglish, 24, is president of Willamette Valley Animal Rescue in Brooks.

Oregon Humane Society officials said the rescue was one of the largest in the state’s history.

Both the sheriff’s office and humane society had received complaints about the facility.

The dogs, many of which were in need of medical attention, were taken to the Oregon Humane Society in Portland before being transferred to other other local shelters.

Don Thompson, of the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, said 120 of the dogs were suffering from neglect and that many were malnourished.

After serving a search warrant, deputies found unclean conditions in the building, with some dogs running free, and some caged in crates. Some dog carriers, intended for single dogs, were filled with as many as four. There was no food available,  little access to clean water, and one dog had his head stuck in a wire cage, deputies said.

According to its listing on Petfinder.com, the organization held adoption fairs at a local Petsmart. In the listing, it described itself as foster care-based but said it was hoping to open a shelter in 2012.

Police in Baltimore shot and killed a family’s pit bull when the dog ran out of his home as police were chasing a suspect.

“He wasn’t just our dog. He was our family,” Stacey Fields said of the family’s dog, Kincaid. “It’s a horrible thing seeing your dog that you love  laying on the ground dead and bloody.”

Fields said a suspect being chased down an alley ran into their basement stairwell, with police in pursuit.

Kincaid ran out of his home during the commotion, and Baltimore police say he charged at the officers.

WJZ reported the dog was shot three times, twice in the head

“He was just barking like ‘Hey, what are doing in my yard? Who are you?’” Fields said.

“If it was a Cockapoo or a Chihuahua it probably wouldn’t have happened,” she said. “If he had pulled his mace, Kincaid would still be here.”

The founder of the dog rescue organization that moved its headquarters into Michael Vick’s old house was charged Monday with animal cruelty, the Daily Press in Hampton Roads reported.

Surry County deputies served a search warrant at Dogs Deserve Better’s Good Newz Rehab Center for Chained and Penned Dogs.

According to court records, they were looking for Tasers and mace allegedly used on the rescued dogs.

Authorities said the search and investigation were prompted by allegations from former staff and volunteers working at the center on Moonlight Drive — the same house where Philadelphia Eagles quarterback lived when he bankrolled a dog-fighting operation.

Dogs Deserve Better founder Tamira Thayne was charged with one count of misdemeanor animal cruelty and one count of inadequate care of animals, also a misdemeanor, according to Surry County Chief Animal Control Officer Tracy Terry.

She’s scheduled to appear Sept. 25 in Surry General District Court.

According to the search warrant, deputies were searching for all paperwork connected to dogs that have been housed on the property since the facility opened in June 2011, including veterinary records and receipts.

The search warrant alleged that “animals are being maced and tased on regular basis” and dogs are being cratedfor long periods, up to 19 hours a day. According to the warrant, injured and sick dogs are not getting proper veterinary care.

Terry declined to discuss what, if anything, was found in the search.

Authorities removed one dog from the kennel, but Terry refused to say why.

Terry said she began investigating July 20 after receiving mailed complaints, including pictures, from current and former employees and volunteers.

(Photo: Adrin Snider / Daily Press)

The man who left his injured dog atop a Colorado mountain, now facing animal cruelty charges, wants his dog back.

But one of the dog’s rescuers want to keep it.

The dog is safe and recovering now, but another doggie custody battle looks to be in the offing, pitting a dog’s original owner against someone who helped save it.

Anthony Ortalani was charged with animal cruelty Friday following an investigation by the Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Office, KUSA reported.

“We base that on information we learned that the dog had been up there for eight days in this rugged terrain. The weather had been inclement on certain days with rain and snow and the fact that he made little attempt to go back up and get the dog or try to make any other arraignments to retrieve the dog and get it back,” Sgt. Rick Safe with the Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Department said.

The dog, named Missy, has not been returned to Ortalani, who faces a court appearance Oct. 16.

“The dog is doing great now and is expected to make a full recovery,” Sgt. Safe said.

But apparently that’s no thanks to the sheriff’s department.

The Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Department is the same agency that Ortalini contacted for help once getting down the mountain. He says they declined to attempt a rescue of his German shepherd

According to Ortalani he was climbing Mt. Bierstadt when his dog’s paws became blistered and too sore for her to continue walking. Ortalani says he tried to carry the 112-pound dog off the mountain but was unable to. He says that attempts by him and his friends to lower the dog with ropes ended up injuring the dog even more.

With a storm approaching, he says, he was forced to leave Missy behind.

Once down the mountain, Ortalani contacted a search-and-rescue group and the Clear Creek sheriff’s department but says he was told it was too risky to send a rescue crew up for the dog.

A group of volunteers managed to pull it off, though.

Scott Washburn was out hiking with his wife when he spotted the dog, 13,000 feet up Mount Bierstadt. He posted photos of the dog on a climbing website, 14ers.com. A group of volunteers was assembled, and they climbed back up and brought Missy down.  The hikers took turns carrying her in a backpack down the mountain. Missy, who spent eight days on the mountain without food or water, was taken to a veterinarian who treated her for injuries to her paws and dehydration.

While Ortalani wants her back. Washburn and his wife have asked to adopt the dog.

Ortalani posted his thanks for those who rescued his dog on 14ers.com: “I am at a complete loss of words. My gratitude for the people involved in this is without measure.”

He went on to say, “I humbly beg the forgiveness of the community and most of all my Missy Girl. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart.”

(Photo: 14ers.com)

A South Carolina woman called a county animal control office asking they come pick up a dog she no longer wanted.

Then she left the hound mix in a bag on the curb — for three days.

Veronica Crawford, 29,  of Florence, was arrested by Darlington County Sheriff’s deputies on June 14 and charged with ill treatment of animals, SCNow.com reported.

According to Capt. Andy Locklair of the Darlington County Sheriff Office, Crawford called the county Animal Control office on Monday, June 11, saying she had a dog she no longer wanted.

She asked that the dog be picked up, but was informed that she would have to bring it in and fill out paperwork.

Three days later, according to Locklair, Crawford called Animal Control again requesting that the dog be picked up — and noting that it had been outside her home since Monday, tied up in a bag.

Animal Control contacted the Sheriff’s Office, which sent deputies to the residence. The dehydrated dog was found with only her head protruding from a bag.

Crawford was arrested and taken to the Darlington County Detention Center.

The dog was named Belinda at the shelter, where she was being treated for dehydration and injuries from her collar having becoming embedded in her skin.

(Photo: Darlington County Animal Control)

A Toledo man stuffed six English bulldog puppies and their mother into a piece of luggage and abandoned them next to a trash bin — apparently not realizing that the canvas suitcase had a tag on it bearing his contact information.

The bag of pups — three males, three females and their mother — was dropped off behind a city business. They were picked up April 4 by the Lucas County Dog Warden’s office, according to the Toledo Blade.

On Tuesday, two counts of abandonment Tuesday were filed against Howard Davis, who lives about a quarter mile from where the dogs were dropped.

Gene Boros, a Toledo Area Humane Society cruelty officer who questioned Davis, said the man told him he had not abandoned the dogs and had given them to someone in Michigan. Boros said Davis appeared to be in the process of moving out of his home.

Passers-by initially found the dogs and unzipped the bag to give them air, said Julie Lyle, Lucas County dog warden.

“There are witnesses who said that the female is indeed Mr. Davis’ dog and that he had been trying to sell puppies,” said John Dinon, executive director of the Toledo Area Humane Society.

Davis was to be charged with two counts  of either first-degree or second-degree misdemeanor abandonment. Davis will be issued a citation and given a court date, but he was not arrested, Dinon said.

The dogs were transferred to the Humane Society, where the pups and their mother, now named Maddie,  are reported to be doing well.

They will be going to a foster home by the end of the week and won’t be available for adoption for at least four weeks — possibly longer since they are part of a criminal case.

(Photo: THE BLADE / DAVE ZAPOTOSKY)

A Greenfield, Mass., woman is facing animal cruelty charges after her car apparently dragged her dog for four miles.

Police received a report Sunday morning that a black dog was being dragged from the driver’s side of a car in Turners Falls.

When police arrived, they found a man and a woman coming out of a wooded area, where the body of a dog had been discarded, WWLP (22News) reported.

The woman was identified in police records as Shylo Valego of Greenfield. The man is identified as Casey A. Aiken of Turners Falls.

The two had originally told police that they did not know who the animal’s owner was and had found it dead in the road. Later, Valego admitted the dog belonged to her, police said.

An examination of the vehicle led police to conclude the the dog’s leash was trapped in the vehicle’s driver’s side door as the woman drove from her Greenfield home into Turners Falls; a distance of about four miles.

She was charged with cruelty to animals, obstruction of justice, and possession of an open container of alcohol in a motor vehicle. Aiken is charged with obstruction of justice and being an accessory after the fact.

A Chicago woman who said she “no longer wanted” her dog was charged with animal abuse over the weekend after her bleeding dog led police to her doorstep.

Police said they responded to an animal abuse call of children beating a dog with broomsticks and baseball bats.

The children fled when police arrived, and the dog, a terrier mix, walked back to the home it had been put out of, in East Garfield Park, and scratched on the door, according to Chicago Tribune.

Officers said the dog’s owner, Lashon Parks, 42, hadn’t been giving the animal water or food and had left it outside in temperatures below 25-degrees for an unidentified amount of time.

Parks told officers that she owned the dog for ten years but no longer wanted it.

She was charged with failure to comply with an animal owner’s duties and cruelty to animals, both misdemeanors.

The dog was in stable condition, according to an Animal Care & Control official.

Less than a week after her owner was charged with animal cruelty for pulling his dog on a leash while driving his van, a mutt named Cricket has a new home — with an officer in the police department that made the arrest.

Cricket now belongs to Michael Lake, a police officer in Warren, Michigan — one of a handful of officers who offered to adopt her after she was taken away from her owner after his arrest Sunday, the Daily Tribune reports.

“I mentioned it first. I guess I drew the lucky straw,” Lake said. “She’s such a lovable dog.”

Police arrested resident Keith John Parker, 43, after several people reported to police that a man was pulling a dog on a leash while driving in the parking lot of the County Line Flea Market.

Some witnesses told police that  the dog had difficulty keeping up and apparently tumbled at one point. When confronted by officers, Parker said he felt the dog needed to go for a run, police said.

Parker was arraigned this week on misdemeanor charges of animal cruelty and drunken driving.

Warren Police Commissioner Jere Green said Parker, who’d had Cricket since October, agreed to relinquish the dog.

Police said Cricket had a wound above one eye, and had lost a claw. Lake was scheduled to take her to a veterinarian yesterday.

Officers aren’t sure what breeds are in Cricket, or how old she is, with estimates ranging from 7 months to 7 years.

Lake has another dog, a German shorthair pointer. “They should get along great,” Lake said.