ohmidog!

After a dalmatian owner showed some spotty behavior in Central Park, he has been sued by the man who claims he was attacked by him — aptly enough, the owner of a pointer.

The New York Daily News reports that Jeffrey Drogin, owner of a German shorthaired pointer who has competed at Westminster, is suing the owner of the dalmatian he says he was trying to save his dog from.

Drogin said he had just pulled the dalmatian off his dog when the dalmatian’s owner, Ralph Wachtel, 74, “cold cocked and pummeled” him “without provocation or warning,” according to a Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit.

“His dog was on top of my dog, attacking my dog, and I lifted him off by the collar and was walking him away from the fight,” Drogin, a 59-year-old Manhattan engineer, told the Daily News.

Drogin said Wachtel punched him in the head, back and face, breaking one of his teeth. “I made a point of not hitting back. I didn’t want to hit a man that was 10 years older than me.”

Apparently there was some ill will between the dogs, and the dog owners, even before the March 8, 2012 incident, which the Daily News said led to assault charges against Wachtel.

Drogin said Wachtel’s dalmatians had previously gone after his dog Homer, and some of his puppies, too.

Drogin is seeking an unspecified monetary award.

The Daily News said no comment was offered by either Wachtel, or his wife — who the newspaper’s “puparazzi” confronted as she left the couple’s apartment to walk the dalmatians, Arrow and Target.

(Photo: Andrew Savulich / New York Daily News)

California earned first place for the fourth year in a row, while South Dakota remained in last place in the Humane Society of the United States fourth annual “Humane State Ranking” report.

The HSUS graded all 50 states and Washington, D.C. on the strength of a wide range of animal protection laws, including public policies dealing with animal cruelty and fighting, pets, wildlife, equines, animals in research, and farm animals.

Ohio was the most improved state, leaping ahead in the ranks by passing laws regulating puppy mills and the private possession of dangerous wild animals.

You can find the complete rankings here.

“Members of The Humane Society of the United States want to know what their state lawmakers are doing to improve animal welfare. Our Humane State Ranking report demonstrates which states are falling behind important protections for animals, and which states are leading in the effort to create a more humane and civil society,” said Wayne Pacelle, HSUS president and CEO.

California stayed on top for the fourth year in a row by passing a number of new laws, including banning the hound hunting of bears and bobcats. Other top states included Massachusetts (tied for second place), which passed laws allowing pets to be included in domestic violence protection orders, and banning gas chambers for euthanasia.

South Dakota earned the lowest score (51st place). Also in the bottom five were Idaho (50th place), Mississippi (49th place), North Dakota (48th place) and South Carolina (47th place).

South Dakota and North Dakota received especially low marks in part because they are the only two states in the country with no felony-level penalties for malicious acts of animal cruelty. North Dakota voters rejected a ballot measure to increase penalties for egregious acts of animal cruelty on the November 2012 ballot.

The rankings are based on 75 different animal protection issues in 10 major animal protection categories including: animal fighting; animal cruelty; wildlife abuse; exotic pets; companion animals; use of animals in research; farm animals; fur and trapping; puppy mills, and equine protection.

After rapper Young Calicoe showed off what he said were fighting dogs and roosters being kept at a Detroit home, a search warrant was executed and the animals were seized.

Police removed animals from the west-side home after the search Wednesday, a Detroit Police spokeswoman told The Detroit News.

In the video, the rapper wanders the grounds of the home, on the 12200 block of West Outer Drive, pointing to pit bulls in kennels and one chained next to a doghouse, and several roosters, of which he says, “We fight them, too. That’s a  grand champ right there.”

The animals from the home will be taken to the Michigan Humane Society,  Detroit Police Sgt. Eren Stephens said. Police are also investigating whether the allegations are part of a larger  dogfighting or cockfighting ring and are questioning several people, Stephens  said.

Michigan Humane Society spokesman Kevin Hatman said all the animals will be treated by veterinarians. “We’re just happy right now that the animals are going to be receiving  high-quality care,” he said.

In the video,  Young Calicoe calls the dogs “champions in the making,” and says  “I hope we don’t get indicted for that — that Michael  Vick-type shit.”

Reports out of the Philippines indicate most of the remaining dogs seized from a Korean-run dogfighting operation are getting a second chance.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer reports that at least two agencies are trying to rehabilitate some of the 223 pit bulls rescued in police raids on March 30.

Members of the Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS), who were first on the scene after the raid, put down 33 dogs they said were sick, badly injured, and dangerously aggressive.

Since then, the newspaper reports, Compassion and Responsibility for Animals (CARA) and the Island Rescue Organization (IRO) have taken over the care of the Laguna pit bulls and have decided to try to save as many of the dogs as possible.

The raid and arrests in San Pablo City and Calauan, Laguna, angered many Philippine animal advocates — especially upon learning some of the suspects were on bail after being arrested on charges of running an online dog fighting operation in December.

“Aside from not wanting to see dogs fight,” Parsons says, “I think what enraged a lot more Filipinos was that this was done by people who had already been arrested, and are still operating with impunity here.”

Island Rescue Organization, already rehabilitating the 61 surviving pit bulls seized in the earlier raid, has taken over the care of the Laguna pit bulls.

“We will try and do what we can in the best way we can,” Nancy Cu-unjieng of Compassion and Responsibility for Animals told the Inquirer, ““and we’ve decided that we must give the dogs a chance to survive.”

Others are are stepping foward to assist.

Henry Monzones, who belongs to the group, Laguna Search and Rescue, has been visiting the site daily to help with head counts and to help design new shelters for the dogs.

In the meantime, the animals are still confined in the steel drums they were found in, but donated tarpaulins and nets are being pitched to shield them from the sun. Some of the dogs had died from heatstroke.

The large tarps were donated by Jay Lim, a businessman and dog trainer with the Philippine Mondioring Association, and his friend, Frenchman Julien Bourraux.

“What I love about pit bulls is, no matter what they’ve been through, if you show them love and respect, they’re willing to forgive anything … There’s definitely hope for these guys — we just have to convince people they’re not killers.”

More than 300 pit bulls were seized from a farm where fighting dogs were kept in a town south of Manila, and eight South Koreans were arrested — many of whom were out on bail after earlier arrests on dogfighting charges.

Many of the rescued dogs — taken during raids on a dogfighting arena and a dog farm south of Manilla — had ripped ears and tongues, the Associated Press reported.

Authorities said the fights between pit bulls were streamed live on the Internet, and gamblers, mostly foreigners, placed bets using credit cards or Paypal.

Chief Inspector Renante Galang of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group’s national office said five of the suspects were out on bail after being arrested Dec. 3 at a dog fight club in Cavite.

“We received information that while they were out on bail they moved and set up another gaming facility in Laguna,” Galang said Saturday.

The dog fight arena in Calauan was raided just before a fight was to take place Friday evening, Galang said.

After the raid, police went to a San Pablo City dog farm, where more than 300 were rescued.

The suspects were to be charged today with violation of the Animal Welfare Act and illegal gambling, he added.

Many of the dogs were in bad condition and some had been injured in previous fights, said Anna Cabrera, executive director of the Philippine Animal Welfare Society.

Each of the dogs on the farm was chained to a steel drum, which served as a doghouse.

PAWS veterinarians said 10 pit bulls were so badly injured they had to be euthanized.

(Photo: Philippine Animal Welfare Society)

An off-duty animal control officer shot a dog that was attacking his puppy at an off-leash dog park in Utah.

Police said the animal control officer’s puppy, of unidentified breed, was attacked Saturday by a bull terrier at Millrace Park in West Valley City.

Both the puppy and the dog who was shot survived and were being treated at veterinary hospitals, according to the Salt Lake City Tribune.

Police said the owners of the two dogs attempted to pry them apart. When that failed, the owner of the puppy — an animal control officer in West Valley City — took out a .40 -caliber hand gun and shot the pit bull.

The animal control officer had a permit allowing him to carry a concealed weapon.

No charges were filed pending further investigation.

Have you heard about the Fighting Mice of the University of Wisconsin?

No, that’s not the football team.

These rodent warriors do battle not on the gridiron, but in the laboratory, where scientists stage bouts, and — while not charging admission or, we hope, taking bets — videotape them, to try and better understand mouse aggression.

The same sort of thing — emphasis on “sort” — Michael Vick, and many others, have gone to prison for doing with dogs.

Now PETA has joined in an effort to bring an end to the staged fights.

In a letter to the Dane County district attorney, PETA and the Madison-based Alliance for Animals allege University of Wisconsin scientists are violating a law that says “no person may intentionally instigate” a fight between animals.

The two groups cite at least 35 articles published by UW researchers since 1999 that described fights between mice, part of a federally funded effort by researchers to study aggressive behavior.

If you’re wondering why not just study professional wrestling instead — which often offers its own version of a cage match — it may be because the scientists, as part of the study, remove and probe the brains of the mice when their fighting careers end. (Try doing that with a professional wrestler and you’d be in trouble.)

What I’m wondering is whether the scientists factor in how much of a role being locked in a cage all their rodent life might play in mouse aggression.

Eric Sandgren, director of animal research at the university, told the Wisconsin State Journal that he doesn’t believe the law PETA is citing is intended to prohibit scientific research, but rather to prevent cockfighting, dog fighting or bullfighting. “Aggression research like this isn’t really the point of the law,” he said.

He said the “fights” are not blood-letting affairs; they generally involve mice displaying aggressive behavior but then backing away. The researchers “don’t see animals that have wounds,” he said. “They don’t see animals that are limping.”

The complaint is similar to one the Alliance for Animals and PETA filed against the University of Wisconsin a year ago that accused researchers of violating a state law that prohibits killing animals through decompression. A special prosecutor decided not to bring charges in that matter.

All the “meddling” by animal rights groups led the state legislature’s budget committee last month to approve a provision specifying “that current law provisions prohibiting crimes against animals would not apply to persons engaged in bona fide scientific research…”

Rick Bogle, co-director of Alliance for Animals, said the provision would, in effect, allow university researchers to do anything they wanted with animals.

“Their argument, the way I read it, is the state should absolutely have no say in what goes on in the state university involving animals,” he said.

According to PETA, the university has spent “millions of tax dollars on staging violent fights between animals in their laboratories for cruel aggression experiments. Experimenters lock large, aggressive mice and smaller, weaker mice together in cages that the animals can’t escape from and then watch as the weaker mice are beaten up and bitten repeatedly for as long as 10 minutes. The bouts are videotaped, and experimenters count the number of “attacks” per fight. The winners are then killed and have their brains cut out and dissected.”

You can read PETA’s letter to the Dane County District Attorney here.

Two pit bulls were shot and killed in separate incidents– one in Severna Park, one in Severn – over the weekend.

On Saturday, a Severna Park resident shot his neighbor’s dog when it approached him in what he considered an aggressive manner.

Charles L. McConnell, 39 (left) was charged with one count each of animal cruelty and illegally discharging a handgun within 100 yards of an occupied structure, police said.

According to The Capital in Annapolis, McConnell was in his back yard when his neighbor’s pit bull, Jasmine, approached, barking and growling. When the dog got within 10 feet of him, he pulled his .40-caliber Beretta from a holster on his hip and fired one time.

The dog, who was owned by Derrick Hopkins Sr., ran off and was later found dead

In the Severn shooting, on Sunday, the owner of a pit bull shot and killed another pit bull after the two animals began fighting.

According to police, a woman was walking her family’s pit bull, Kayne, when a second pit bull, named Gyno, approached. The two dogs began fighting. One of the children walking Gyno ran to get her father, Gyno’s owner, who arrived with a semiautomatic pistol and shot Kayne, police said.

Gyno was taken into custody pending further investigation. No charges have been filed.

Kayne, a gray 4-year-old pit bull, was taken to a local veterinarian’s office where he died.

A drug raid at a home in west Baltimore Friday night led to the discovery of six badly injured pit bulls who had apparently been used for fighting.

The dogs — all with bite wounds, some scarred over, some still bleeding – were seized by police and were being cared for at Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter (BARCS).

“It is heart breaking to see beautiful, friendly dogs with such severe wounds and knowing what they were put through, said BARCS Executive Director Jennifer Brause.  “The dogs will not be available for adoption until investigations have been resolved.  In the meantime, our dedicated staff will treat their wounds, shower them with love and attention, and provide the best possible care.”

The puppies, all seized from a home on Edgemont Avenue, in the city’s Druid Hill section, were all underweight, with their ribs and spines clearly visible, BARCS staff said.  One of them was a puppy, about three months old.

Police confiscated paraphernalia associated with training dogs for fighting, including a treadmill with attachments for a harness, a bite ball, and heavy chains.

BARCS is accepting donations to help provide veterinary treatment for these dogs. Donations can be made online at www.BaltimoreAnimalShelter.org, at the shelter, or through the mail:  BARCS Franky Fund, 301 Stockholm Street, Baltimore, MD, 21230.

According to WJZ, police were unable to say whether anyone was arrested in connection with the raid, or what, if any charges were filed. A neighbor told a WJZ reporter that she noticed different dogs at the residence, off an on, and that their caretakers allowed them to fight.  “One would hold a dog by the leash, a one would hold the other dog by the leash, and they would just let them go at it for about a minute or so.”

BARCS officials say they are hoping all six dogs recover, but that two of them are in pretty bad shape.

I finally got my Thanksgiving dinner, and while I didn’t bite the hand that fed me, Ace did bite the head of the dog belonging to the man who fed us.

My brother and his partner, James, knowing my travels had precluded me from enjoying a turkey dinner, invited us to come over Sunday for one, with all the fixings.

James, a master chef, put out quite a spread — numerous appetizers, turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, yams, all followed by pumpkin cake.

During the preparation, Ace — having learned from previous experiences — was at his side every moment, followed every dish to the table, and as we ate, sat down and waited hopefully that a bite or two might be passed his way. Roscoe, too, approached the table from time to time, but didn’t seem obsessive about it, like Ace.

Though about the same age, they are two very different dogs, I’ve noticed in the time we’ve shared over the past months. Roscoe is the more goofy and dog-like of the two, more prone to barking, more likely to slather your face with kisses. Where Ace seems to have a desire to be a human, Roscoe seems perfectly content with his dog-ness. Where Ace seems to think “if I behave well, I will be rewarded,” Roscoe’s attitude is more “to heck with that stuff.”

I’d always considered Ace the smarter of the two. But now I’m not so sure. At dinner, Ace would sit and stare at whoever was chewing. He does that, almost as if watching a tennis match. He will sit and stare as long as a person is chewing, and even after that, probably until whatever is being masticated has cleared the esophagus. Then he’ll stare until every last plate is cleared, and loaded in the dishwasher, and the kitchen light goes off. Hope springs eternal.

Roscoe uses a different strategy.

He’s prone — not just during meals, but anytime — to grabbing household items with his mouth and not letting go. During my last visit, it was my underwear (not while I was wearing them). Sometimes it’s a pillow from the bed, or a pillow from the couch, or a camera bag, or a pair of socks.

He doesn’t destroy the item. Rather he just walks around with it dangling from his mouth, wagging his tail and absolutely refusing to let go until he gets a better offer — i.e. a treat.

At our belated Thanksgiving dinner, Roscoe grabbed a cloth napkin off the table, then paraded around, as if he wanted everybody to see. Not until some turkey was offered did he relinquish it.

This, while maybe not a perfect example of how humans should train their dogs, is a perfect example of how dogs train their humans. I think if we ever caught on, and tallied up how much our dogs manage to manipulate us, we’d be shocked. Fortunately, most of us are too busy to do that, and go on thinking we’re smarter than our dogs.

After dinner, we watched some TV — perhaps the only thing that manipulates us more than our dogs. If you need more proof that our dogs are smarter than us, ask yourself this question. When was the last time your dog tuned in to “Glee?”

After that, I was full, sleepy and gleeful enough to accept an offer to stay the night. Ace slept at my side until James woke up, at which point, I can only assume, he resumed his I-must-follow-this-man-everywhere-he-goes routine.

I was awakened by the sound of fighting dogs, then the sound of screaming humans, after a second or two of which all was quiet. Ace came back and took his place by my couch, and I went back to sleep.

It wasn’t until I really woke up, a couple of hours later, that I noticed Roscoe had a red mark on his head, and the side of his face. Ace, meanwhile, showed no signs of injuries.

Apparently, while James was in the bathroom, both dogs decided to join him there, and in those close quarters decided the room wasn’t big enough for the both of them. Their rare spat, seemingly, wasn’t over turkey, but attention.

Once it was over they were back to their normally peacefully coexisting selves. Roscoe, despite a slightly punctured head, seemed sad to see Ace leave.

Evidence of yet one more thing at which dogs just might be better than us — forgiveness.