ohmidog!

A Boston terrier who was shaken up in a massive freeway pileup in Detroit was carried to safety by a firefighter who knows a few things about dogs in distress.

Matt Schaecher works as a Detroit firefighter two days a week, and as a cruelty investigator for the Humane Society of Huron Valley for the other five.

When Schaecher came upon a woman’s crumpled car at the mile-long accident scene on southbound Interstate 75, he asked if she needed help. “I think my dog might be injured,” she responded.

Schaecher pulled the dog, named Riley, from the car and checked him out while other emergency workers attended to the driver, Heather Ramsey of Ferndale.

“He was shaking almost uncontrollably,” Schaecher said. “Probably a combination of being extremely scared and cold.” As Shaecher cradled the dog in a blanket, Detroit News photographer David Coates took the photo above.

Riley wasn’t injured, and Shaecher placed the dog in the ambulance with his owner. Ramsey has since been released from the hospital, according to AnnArbor.com

Three people, including two children, were killed in the chain reaction of crashes.

Schaecher, who is the lead cruelty investigator for the Humane Society of Huron Valley in Washtenaw County’s Superior Township, said the widely distributed photo of Riley and him served as a positive note amid the lingering horror of the crash.

“Obviously any accident scene or any emergency scene that involves children is extremely difficult,” he said. My heart just goes out to the families of the people that have lost loved ones. I can’t imagine being in that position.”

Max, the Argentine mastiff who was impounded last week after biting a Denver television news anchor on the face, is headed home and won’t face any serious consequences.

Denver environmental health spokeswoman Meghan Hughes said Thursday the dog will go home this weekend after completing a 10-day mandatory quarantine, the Associated Press reported.

Kyle Dyer of KUSA-TV received 70 stitches after she was bitten in the face by the 85-pound dog while doing a live in-studio interview with the dog’s owner and a firefighter who had rescued the dog from an icy pond the day before.

Hughes says the dog’s owner, Michael Robinson, was cited with failure to have his dog on a leash. He’s due in court Feb. 29.

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All in all, it has been a rough few days for Gladiator Max, an 85-pound Argentine Mastiff in Colorado — but maybe rougher yet for Denver TV news anchor Kyle Dyer, who Max bit during a Wednesday interview about the dog’s icy rescue.

Dyer was interviewing the dog, his owner, and the firefighter who rescued him from an icy pond Tuesday — all of whom had been invited to the offices of 9 News in Denver. Max had shown no aggression — not during the rescue and not during the studio interview.

But when Dyer got too close, Max bit her in the face. She was taken to Denver Health Medical Center, where she was listed in fair condition, according to 9NEWS.

The incident aired live, but the station is not reshowing video of the bite.

Doug Kelley, the director of Denver Animal Care and Control, said Max’s owner will be cited — for the bite, for the leash law violation, and for not having Max vaccinated against rabies.

The dog is being held at the Denver Animal Shelter and will be quarantined for 10 days, according to Kelley.

The studio interview was for a follow up story on Max’s rescue Tuesday evening. Max chased a coyote onto the ice of Smith Reservoir and fell through, according to 9 News in its initial report.

The dog spent 20 minutes in the freezing water before firefighters arrived. Firefighter Tyler Sugaski fell through the ice on his way to Max, swimming the rest of the way to grab him.

“The dog recognized right off that I was there to help, so he came towards me,” Sugaski recalled.

Other than some scrapes from the ice, the dog appeared fine and was taken into an ambulance to be warmed up.

“He’s just a rock solid dog,” said his owner, Michael Robinson.

A beagle named Sparky is suspected of starting a fire that damaged the home of a Virginia firefighter.

Glenn Ross was about to sit down to dinner at Alexandria Fire Department Station 206 Tuesday evening when he heard a familiar address come across the radio — that of his home in Franconia.

Arriving at his house, Ross learned his wife had not been home, and his two dogs — Sparky and Brownie — had been rescued, though both were unconscious on a neighbor’s lawn. Firefighters had found the dogs under a table in the kitchen, where both spend the day.

Investigators said the fire started when a box of dog treats left on the stove top ignited, WUSA reported.

Ross believes that one of the dogs, most likely Sparky, jumped up trying to get the treats and accidentally turned on a burner.

Ross said a five-year-old neighbor saw smoke coming from the home and ran in to get his grandparents who called 911.

Both dogs were recovering at Alexandria Animal Hospital and Veterinary Emergency Service, where they were being treated for smoke inhalation and corneal burns.

A former Los Angeles County assistant fire chief was sentenced to 90 days of weekend jail time and 400 hours of community service for beating his neighbor’s dog so severely with a rock that she had to be euthanized.

Animal activists packed a courtroom in Riverside to hear the, which also requires Glynn Johnson, 55,  to take anger management courses and pay the veterinary bills, according to the Riverside Press-Enterprise.

Johnson , accused of using a 12-pound rock to repeatedly strike a 6-month-old German-shepherd mix named Karley, was convicted in January of animal cruelty.

Johnson claimed he was freeing himself after the puppy clamped its mouth on his hand as he walked her home to his neighbor. Witnesses disputed that and said Johnson attacked the dog without reason.

Johnson apologized to the owners, but said he would appeal the sentence.

Karley’s owners, Jeff and Shelley Toole, said in court that Johnson should get the maximum sentence of more than four years in prison.

“If (Karley) did this to you, her punishment would be death,” Jeff Toole said. “And if I were a judge that would be the punishment for you too, but I’m not a judge. You’re a danger society and you need to be locked up before you hurt someone else.”

Judge J. Thompson Hanks said he considered Johnson’s lack of criminal record and service as a firefighter in the lighter sentence. The judge specified that Johnson’s community service include working with dogs.

“You don’t see this kind of outpouring from the community in many cases, including the death of children,” Hanks said. “As a judge, I have to balance. I have to consider the conduct of the individual who did it and the appropriate punishment.”

An Ohio firefighter who was fired for executing his two dogs walked out of an appeal hearing yesterday in which he was seeking to get his job back.

As a result, the Civil Service Commission dismissed David Santuomo’s appeal of his firing, the Columbus Dispatch reports.

Santuomo, 43, was waiting for the hearing to begin, but left after a television news crew set up a camera in the commission’s hearing room.

“He came here with the intention of going forward but changed his mind,” said Barbara McGrath, the commission’s executive director. The commission had agreed to postpone the original hearing in the fall and informed Santuomo that his appeal would be dismissed if he didn’t attend today’s hearing.

Santuomo was fired in July after being convicted of two counts of animal cruelty and one count of possession of a criminal tool. Prosecutors say Santuomo tied his two mixed-breed dogs to a pipe in his basement and shot them so he wouldn’t have to put them in a kennel while he went on a vacation cruise with his girlfriend. He dumped the bodies in a trash bin behind his fire station

He was sentenced to 90 days in jail and fined $4,500.

The dog whose helicopter rescue from a rain-swollen river was captured by television cameras Friday is doing fine.

Despite getting bitten, the Los Angeles firefighter who rescued him is too.

Firefighter Joe St. Georges, 50, received at least one bite after splashing into the Los Angeles River to retrieve the frightened German shepherd. But, after his release from a hospital, he said he has no hard feelings against the dog.

“I knew the dog was scared and tired. It’s not too surprising that it was really upset with this big, loud noisy thing blowing all over it,” Fox News quoted St. Georges as saying. “And then some guy comes and jumps on its back — what a surprise the dog bit me.”

The dog, who wore no identification, has been nicknamed Vernon, after the town where he was found. He will be held for five days to allow time for an owner to claim him, after which he will be put up for adoption. Hundreds of families have already volunteered.

Vernon “appears to be well-maintained and cared for,” said Sgt. Charles Miller of the Southeast Area Animal Control Authority in Downey, Calif.

At least 50 firefighters responded to reports that the dog was in the river on Friday afternoon. For an hour, they throwing life vests and float rings from the river’s steep, concrete banks. Later, a helicopter was used to lower St. Georges into the river, where he wrestled with the dog and, despite getting bitten, held on as the helicopter hoisted the two to safety.

At a late afternoon news conference, helicopter pilot Scott Bowman said St. Georges took a muzzle with him but he wasn’t able to get it on, “so he decided to go for the capture.”

An Ohio firefighter sentenced to 90 days in jail for killing his dogs has now lost his fire department job.

Columbus Public Safety Director Mitchell Brown said today that he has decided to terminate 43-year-old David Santuomo on the recommendation of the fire chief, according to an Associated Press report.

The thousands of messages the department received demanding the firefighter be stripped of his job probably played a role as well.

Santuomo pleaded guilty last month to three misdemeanors, including two animal cruelty counts. Prosecutors say Santuomo tied his two mixed-breed dogs to a pipe in his basement and shot them in December so he wouldn’t have to put them up in a kennel while he went on vacation.

A judge in Columbus imposed a 90-day jail sentence on an Ohio firefighter who pleaded guilty to killing his dogs to avoid boarding them while he went on vacation.

David Santuomo, 43, of Columbus pleaded guilty Wednesday to two counts of animal cruelty and one count of possession of a criminal tool — a homemade silencer he used on the end of a rifle, the Associated Press reports.

Assistant Franklin County Prosecutor Heather Robinson said Santuomo shot his two mixed-breed dogs, Sloopy and Skeeter, on Dec. 3 after tying them to a pipe in his basement. He dumped the remains in a trash bin behind his firehouse, she said.

Prosecutors have said he bragged about the killings to colleagues.