ohmidog!

Authorities in Arizona are taking a closer look at how Tucson Greyhound Park has managed to go 60 years without getting a city license for any of the dogs on the premises.

The Arizona Daily Star reports that there’s no record of any exemption being granted by South Tucson, the municipality in which the track operates, or by Pima County.

An ordinance in South Tucson requires dog owners pay a $45 licensing fee.

Under the ordinance, any unaltered dog kept within the city for 30 consecutive days each year is required to have a license.

Yet Tucson Greyhound Park, a home of sorts to more than 700 dogs, hasn’t gotten a license for any of them in six decades. At $45 per license, given all those dogs and all those years, that’s a pretty significant savings.

Kim Janes, manager of Pima County Animal Care, said he doesn’t know why the park considered itself exempt. He said his office began investigating the matter about a year ago.

His office found no state statutes that spared greyhound tracks from paying the fee.

The South Tucson’s City Attorney’s Office contacted his office last week, informing him that dogs at the park should be licensed, and Janes planned to send officers to the park this week.

“We are going to be talking to the track and say they need to have some information for us,” he said. “When we come out, we will need to see rabies vaccinations and proof of when the dog got here. If (they) don’t have proof, we are going to assume it has been here more than 30 days.”

Tucson Greyhound Park CEO and General Manager Tom Taylor said the greyhounds don’t need a license because the state requires every greyhound to receive a rabies vaccination before entering the state or being qualified to race. Since rabies vaccinations are the primary reason for licensing, he said, there’s no need for the park to register the dogs locally.

“Since 1944, we have never had to have them licensed,” he said.

Taylor said he suspects negative media coverage about the track, and animal welfare organizations seeking to ban greyhound racing, are behind the crackdown.

New Jersey is cracking down on those who fail to use seat belts — dogs included.

And the fine for an unrestrained dog — unlike the $46 one for an unbuckled human — can cost you up to $1,000.

Because it’s considered animal cruelty under state law, penalties for transporting your dog without a restraint range from $250 to $1,000 and as much as six months in jail.

“That’s for each offense,” Col. Frank Rizzo, the police superintendent for the New Jersey SPCA, told reporters this week. “So, if you have more than one animal loose in your car, just do the math.”

Rizzo and representatives from the state the Motor Vehicle Commission briefed reporters about the law as New Jersey entered the initial phase of its “Click It or Ticket” campaign, at the outset of which police in 23 Bergen and Passaic county towns issued 359 tickets for back-seat violations — none of them involving dogs.

While some reports are calling the doggie seat belt mandate a new law, the Bergen Record’s Road Warrior column reports that leaving your dog unrestrained in the back seat of your car violates state statute 4:22:18, which is 16 years old.

(An unbuckled adult human in the back seat only became illegal in New Jersey three years ago.)

Rizzo said the high fines will help people become aware of the dangers of dogs traveling in cars unrestrained. “Some people tell us they like to let their pets hang their heads out the window to take in the fresh air, but dogs and cats become projectiles in a crash,”  Rizzo said.

“It’s much cheaper to invest about $25 in a restraint system than to deal with the consequences of a crash,” said MVC Chief Administrator Ray Martinez, who used his own golden retriever-poodle mix to show reporters how to harness a dog into a back seat.

Patch.com, in an unscientific online poll, was finding little support for mandating dog restraints, and found few police officers interested in enforcing it.

“Seriously, the best part of my day is hitting the road with my dog sitting right beside me in my truck.” said one veteran officer said who asked not to be identified.

Another thought the law was intrusive, and its penalties too severe.

We welcome your thoughts on this topic (and everything else, too, of course), and we’ll share our own, bearing in mind I only started wearing my seat belt about six years ago, when I bought a new car, and only to stop the eternal dinging that resulted when I didn’t put it on.

Ace doesn’t wear a seat belt or restraint. At 130 pounds, he travels loose in the folded down back seat, sometimes with his head resting on the console between the front seats. He does from time to time stick his head out the back window, though I discourage it on Interstate highways.

Having recently completed a year-long, 27,000 mile road trip with him, I can’t imagine what that would have been like for him if he had been strapped down the whole time.

Our trip was all about being free and liberated — for a year at least — and while I’m probably over-protective of him in most ways, this is a step that, while it’s becoming more and more politically correct, I don’t see taking.

Until authorities show up at my door, or pull me over in New Jersey, Ace rides free.

Before its looming crackdown on unlicensed dogs, the city of Chicago will try a gentler form of persuasion — a contest to name the city’s first ever “Dog of Distinction.”

All dogs whose owners apply for a city license in the next three months will be eligible.

In April, five newly-licensed dogs will be randomly chosen to compete for the title, which will go to the dog who captures the most online votes for best exemplifying “Chicago’s spirit.”

Finalists will get dog-friendly cruise tickets, a tea party in their honor at the Palmer House Hilton, and gift bags filled with dog treats and accessories.

The winner gets a custom-designed, ruby and topaz dog tag in the shape of the Chicago flag;  a weekend stay at the Palmer House Hilton, a photo shoot at Urban Out Sitters and a story in Chicagoland Tails magazine.

The city’s thinking, as explained in the Sun-Times, is that dangling a carrot in front of the 470,000 Chicago owners of unlicensed dogs will both help educate those who aren’t aware of the long-ignored requirement and inspire more people to license their dogs.

Those who spurn the carrot will face the stick — namely, fines of up to $200 for failure to license your dog.

“I don’t think it’s fair to ticket people who are not even aware of the legal obligation,” City Clerk Susana Mendoza said. “First, we’ll educate, then follow up with a strong enforcement campaign.”

There are believed to be about 500,000 dogs in Chicago, but even after a surge in registrations sparked by talk of the impending crackdown, fewer than 30,000 are licensed, the Sun-Times reported.

Under the crackdown, the city won’t be setting up roadblocks, raiding dog parks or stopping dog owners at random, Mendoza said. But they will be acting on any complaints.

“We’re not gonna go out there in mass droves and try to stop people legally walking their pet, but there are plenty of other opportunties,” she said. “When you see dogs running on beaches, it’s fair to go up to those individuals and ask if their dogs are licensed.”

The license fee for spayed or neutered dogs is $5; it’s $50 for dogs who aren’t fixed. To purchase a dog license, owners must show proof that their dogs have been vaccinated for rabies. The dog license is a sticker affixed to the rabies tag.

Licenses can be purchased online at www.chicityclerk.com. Applications will also be mailed to dog owners who call (312) 744-DOGS (3647).

(Photo: from Golden Creek Kennels)

The city of Chicago, which has long let dog owners slide when it comes to licensing their pets, plans to put the “man” back in mandatory.

After a 90-day public education period, the city will begin enforcing its mandatory dog license policy and start ticketing dog owners who haven’t registered their pets.

According to the Sun-Times, the city sold 27,918 licenses last year, less than 5 percent of its estimated dog population of 560,000.

That’s more than $2 million, at the very least, being missed out on.

“We can ticket people . . . that is part of the plan. At the end of the period of time we give people to get the dog license, if they didn’t obtain it, it’s a ticket that ranges between $50 and $200 for not having a dog license,” said Cherie Travis, executive director of the Commission on Animal Care and Control.

The crackdown will follow a 90-day education campaign that will also feature low-cost rabies vaccines at events across the city and an online dog registration contest with prizes donated by local businesses.

To purchase a dog license, owners must show proof that their dogs have been vaccinated for rabies. The dog license is a sticker that affixes to the metal rabies tag.

The dog license fee for neutered dogs is $5, compared to a fee of $50 for non-neutered dogs. For senior citizens, the rates are $2.50 and $5 respectively.

Start spreading the news. Dogs, despite the many drinking establishments in New York that let them in, are against the rules, and the city health department is making it a point to enforce them.

That means — even though everybody knows his name — dogs like Miles, a 9-year-old boxer-pug mix who has been going to Ace Bar in the East Village all his life, is no longer welcome there .

Citywide, it’s the end of a tradition — an illegal tradition, but a tradition all the same, the New York Times reports.

The crackdown applies indoors and out, and even to bars that don’t serve what you and I might consider food. “Beer, wine and spirits have always been classified as food,” a department spokeswoman wrote in an email to the Times.

As a result, Miles can only forlornly look in the door when he passes the Ace Bar on his daily walk, said manager Justin Saunders. “Every time Miles walks by, he tries to come in.”

“He’s a dog, but I swear he looks sad,” said Miles owner, Mike Israely.

While it has always been a violation of the city’s health code to allow a dog in a bar, the health department has decided to enforce the rule — clearly the work of buzzkilling bureaucrats who don’t really understand dogs, or bars.

“Bars are built around characters,” noted Andrew Templar, an owner of Floyd NY in Brooklyn Heights — an establishment that drew both the canine and human variety.

It recently received a violation notice after health inspectors twice observed dogs on the premises this summer. “Now it’s just people and their people problems,” Templar complained.

Ace at the anonymous Baltimore bar where he idled away much of his youth

The health department issued 469 violations for live animals in food-service sites from July 1, 2010, to June 30, 2011.

The Times article recounts a long history of dog-friendly drinking holes in the city. At P.J. Clarke’s in Midtown, when a collie named Skippy died, patrons pitched in to have him stuffed. He sits atop a ledge above the entrance to the handicapped bathroom.

A few bars continue to allow dogs, but — unlike the New York Times — we’re not going to name them, lest health inspectors be trolling the Internet.

(Top Photo: By Christian Hansen for The New York Times)

In a episode nearly as ludicrous as the case of the soiled condominium, an English great-grandmother was threatened with a £50 fine for picking up the wrong dog’s poop.

Pam Robson was accused by Sunderland Council wardens of failing to clean up after Derik, her Labrador, in a field in Houghton-le-Spring in January.

The council said the 60-year-old had picked up droppings that emanated from a different dog, according to the BBC.

How they knew that, I’m not sure, for Sunderland is not one of those jurisdictions that are performing DNA analysis on dog poop — a step that has been proposed at a condominium right here in Baltimore.

The board of the Scarlett Place Condominiums on Baltimore’s Inner Harbor is considering a proposal to create a DNA database of its canine residents, then sending offending feces to a lab in an effort to find out exactly who, among their residents, is allowing their dog to poop in its ritzy hallways, and not picking it up.

Yes, everyone should pick up their dog’s waste — but going to such forensic lengths, and fining people for not picking up the right pile, are the actions of obsessive, power hungry control freaks who need to find better causes.

In Robson’s case, she refused to pay the fine and was threatened with court action.

Robson said she had been talking to her daughter on her cell phone when her dog ran off and did it’s doody. Robson walked over, scooped up a pile, and then was approached by two men (because policing poopers is apparently too dangerous a job to do alone).

“He said it was the wrong mess and that he was going to issue me with a fine for £50,” Robson recalled. “I picked up the other mess too and put it in the bag but he said I’d still be fined.”

“It felt like the worst kind of bullying,” she said.

Sunderland City Council, after she complained and asked for a review, later wrote to Robson, saying: “Officers at the time were satisfied that an offence had been committed. However it appears you may have collected faeces belonging to another dog.” In light of that, the note said, the council would not be pursuing the fine.

A federal judge in St. Louis sentenced four Missouri men who admitted taking part in a multi-state dogfighting ring to more than a year of prison each today.

“These dogs were subjected to the kind of cruelty that is sometimes unspeakable for the purpose of entertainment,” U.S. District Judge Carol Jackson said during the sentencing hearing. “Most people would find it difficult to take pleasure in watching two animals tear each other apart. Unfortunately, there are people like you who facilitate this activity.”

Teddy “Teddy Bogart” Kiriakidis, 50, and Ronald Creach, 34, were sentenced to 18 months.  Michael “Missouri Mike” Morgan, 38, and Robert Hackman, 56, were sentenced to one year plus one day in federal prison, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The sentences exceeded federal recommendations.

All four men pleaded guilty in September to a charge of conspiracy to violate federal animal fighting laws. Kiriakidis and Creach received longer sentences because they both have prior felony convictions.

“Animals were severely maimed and killed as part of this conspiracy,” Jackson said. “I have to fashion a sentence that deters … and I hope people think twice about getting involved in this kind of activity.”

The defendants were among more than two dozen people in Missouri, Illinois and other states arrested this summer after an 18-month federal investigation into dogfighting. More than 400 dogs were seized and handed over to the Humane Society of Missouri in July in what has been called the largest crackdown on dogfighting in U.S. history.

Hackman operated Shake Rattle and Roll Kennel, Morgan operated Cannibal Kennel, and Creach operated Hard Goodbye Kennel.

In their pleas, Hackman and Creach said that after a Jan. 3 fight, Kiriakidis helped electrocute the losing dog, a female pit bull named Roho. Creach admitted that he killed a dog named Shady because she didn’t perform well in a practice fight.

The most ambitious crackdown on dogfighting in American history has now led to the seizure of more than 450 dogs, with raids and arrests in eight states.

Following an investigation initiated by the The Humane Society of Missouri, officers from multiple federal and state law enforcement agencies made arrests and seized dogs in Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas in what was ”the largest simultaneous raid of multiple dogfighting operations in the history of the United States,” according to the Humane Society of the United States.

“This intervention is a momentous victory in our ongoing battle to end the cruel, criminal dogfighting industry,” said Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The HSUS. 

Pacelle reported on his blog: “Four United States Attorneys and a bevy of federal law enforcement agencies, along with The HSUS, The Humane Society of Missouri, and the ASPCA, raided multiple dogfighting operations, and seized at least 450 dogs, in what was the largest single day of actions against dogfighting in American history.”

The Humane Society of Missouri is sheltering more than 300 dogs —  mostly pit bulls — seized in the Missouri and Illinois raids. The dogs will be housed, cared for and evaluated at an  emergency shelter in St. Louis.

Read more »

Just a quick word of warning for those who take their dogs to Riverside Park in South Baltimore.

Police and animal control officers were at the park today, prepared to dispense some of the city’s new $1,000 citations for violation of the leash law, according to our sources.

The same newly increased penalty applies to owners who fail to pick up their dog’s waste.

Crackdowns usually take place when the weather gets nice, and, thanks to the city council, they now carry a much higher price tag. So, no matter which city park you and your dog visit, watch your step — in every meaning of the phrase.

Three times in 10 days, Baltimore city animal control officers and police have descended on the park at Mount Vernon Square to cite dog owners whose dogs were off their leashes.

According to a Baltimore Sun report, the crackdown was prompted by complaints from area residents who say some dog owners allow their pets to run wild and destroy flower beds.

Failing to have a dog on a leash results in a $100 fine for a first offense and up to a $1,000 fine for repeat offenders. Bob Anderson, director of the Animal Control Office, said those fines could soon increase. Officers have also been citing dog owners who do not pick up their dogs’ waste.

With spring on the way, and the city in financial straits, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a lot more of these  — even more than the advent of warmer weather traditionally brings. Most likely, there will be one coming soon to a park near you.

Watch for a lone and dogless undercover officer acting like he’s enjoying a day in the park. If he sees you, he’ll escort you to animal control officers hiding nearby. There you’ll receive your ticket, while police stand by to make sure you don’t abscond. At least that’s how it works at the park I frequent.

Meanwhile, I suggest we all be good dog owner-citizens, keep our dogs on leashes (at least when the authorities are around), scoop our poop, and make sure our dogs don’t tiptoe through, or pee on, the tulips.