ohmidog!

It’s time for DogFest, the Baltimore Humane Society’s annual day-long celebration of dogs.

It’s this Saturday, Oct. 15 (with a rain date of Oct. 22) at the Baltimore Humane Society, 1601 Nicodemus Road in Reisterstown.

Need directions?

Gates open at 9 a.m., and activities continue until 6 p.m., with a full schedule of  games, contests and events, and plenty of vendors, prizes, experts, food and adoptable pets

The entrance fee is $10, and parking is free.

As usual, the Humane Society requests no retractable leashes.

Keep reading for the full schedule. Read more »

The Game Show Network (GSN) is bringing back an audience favorite — an all new one hour “Dog Park Superstars,” premiering Sunday (Sept. 25) at 8 p.m.

The show tests the skills of both dog and owner — and, even more, their ability to work as a team.

Over the course of three rounds, the competition tests what an owner’s dog can do, what the owner can prevent their dog from doing, and how well the owner knows their dog.

Each challenge is timed and each score determines who — among the five teams competing — stays in the game and who is sent to the doghouse.

The three remaining teams compete in the final challenge, with the winning pair being awarded a giant gold hydrant-shaped trophy.

The action is moderated by comedian Ben Gleib and ”canine life coach” Laura Nativo.

Gleib is a stand-up comedian and actor, and is a regular guest on the E! network’s “Chelsea Lately.”  Nativo is an actress, producer and dog-trainer who has been dubbed “The Fairy Dogmother.”  She starred in the CBS show, “Greatest American Dog,” hosts a live interactive show for dog lovers, “Preston’s Planet,” on TheStream.tv, and is founder of The Pawtastics, a nonprofit therapy dog team who blend education and entertainment, performing at children’s camps, hospitals and nursing homes.

You can see a preview of “Dog Park Superstars” here.

Animal rights activists are being blamed — though without much proof — for sabotaging the Android app “Dog Wars” by infecting it with a virus that sends out a message from the user’s cell phone to all of that user’s cell phone contacts.

“I take pleasure in hurting small animals, just thought you should know that,” the message reads.

PC Magazine reports that:

Upon installation, the Trojan launches a display icon that mimics the legitimate one: instead of “BETA,” it reads “PETA.” This syncs your device to PETA’s text messaging system. Symantec directed us to instructions on PETA’s website on how to remove yourself from this alert system.

Symantec, which first reported the malware, said it did not think it came from the People of Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). “It is more likely the work of someone attempting to associate the app with PETA or to gain sympathy by the association,” Symantec wrote.

PETA, other animal welfare organizations, and even Michael Vick, had criticized the app, in which players can vie to become big-time pretend dogfighters. It was subsequently removed from Google’s Android Market. It is still available from third party app markets and warez sites.

Developer Kage Productions countered the criticism by saying  “It is JUST a video game … Just because something is illegal in real life does not mean it is illegal to make a song, movie, or video game about it.”

(Graphic from PC Magazine)

Coffee, a dog of many disguises, can be spotted outside the stadiums before, during and after many Mets and Yankees games. But what some New York baseball fans see as cute, others see as cruel, and one of the latter has launched a Facebook page campaign aimed at ending what he’s calling Coffee’s abuse.

For Mets games, Coffee is attired in a Wright No. 5 jersey, a baseball cap, and usually sunglasses or a Groucho Marx disguise, according to Gothamist.

She sits outside Citi Field, sometimes holding a pipe in her mouth, while her master, who places a donation jar in clear view, awaits contributions. The dog’s owner tells people the donated money goes to rescuing other dogs, training them, and finding them homes

According to Deadspin.com, the “Stop Abusing Coffee” Facebook page was founded by Jason Long, who works in marketing and social media. Long has provided photographic evidence to some media outlets of what he says is a shock collar around Coffee’s neck.

“The owner sets up Coffee two hours before every Mets game and stays until the game is over. Coffee does not receive food or water or any rewards. This is in spite of the fact that Coffee is forced to sit there in that ridiculous outfit, complete with a pipe in her mouth,” the Facebook page says.

“Coffee can do this because she is forced to wear a shock collar — that’s why there are so many bandanas around her neck. The shock collar is visible in one of the pictures … Her owner shocks her every time she moves. She is unable to take a rest or get the pipe from her mouth because she is immobilized.”

While Coffee’s master would hardly be the first  pet owner to humiliate a dog, exploit a dog, or zap a dog, that adds up to three strikes to me. If the final allegation is true — that Coffee is being constantly shocked – it’s time to call Coffee’s owner out.

(Graphic by Gothamist.com)

After a brief hiatus due to copyright infringement concerns, “Dog Wars” — the controversial game app for Android smartphones — is back on the online marketplace, where it’s being offered under the new name of “KG Dogfighting.”

Google’s Android Market website began offering the renamed app Saturday. While originally available for free, it’s now listed at $2.99.

A dogfighting game application called “Dog Wars,” in which players fight virtual dogs for virtual money, is being offered through Google’s Android Marketplace.

Developed by Kage Games, the downloadable game allows players to choose an identity, pick their dogs and feed, train and fight them, thereby gaining “cred” and making money.

The game is now available for free download. Players can purchase virtual “adrenaline pens,” from Android which can be used to “revive your dog during a fight or even bring it back to life.”

“Never let your dog go hungry or thirsty… you must train it and feed it a while before you can fight other player’s dogs … Building Cred puts money in your pocket and lets you earn more in fights,” the game description reads.

“Let’s get it on!”

Given its exceedingly bad taste, and how it perpetuates pit bull myths and glamorizes cruel and illegal activity, there are many who’d rather see the game taken off — the market, that is. 

In a post on BSL News, (BSL standing for Breed Specific Legislation), readers are encouraged to flood both Google and Android with emails and complaints.

(Android is an open source operating system created by Google. While Google does not approve every app offered there, it does maintain a website where people can complain about objectionable content in games and apps. You can find it here.)

The makers sound more than a little defensive about the game.

“It is just a video game,” they say in the game description, as if anticipating some controversy. “Perhaps one day we will make gerbil wars or beta fish wars for people who can’t understand fantasy role play games …  Just because something is illegal in real life in certain countries, does not mean it is illegal to make a song, movie, or video game about it.”

It doesn’t mean it’s right, or smart, either.

What’s next, a game in which players compete to see how many children they can molest?

Sure, the folks who came up with “Dog Wars” have a right to market any sick game concept they want. But my advice? Zap that app.

Greg Strope claims his dog Oscar, in the process of chewing his Xbox remote control, purchased $62.50 worth of Microsoft Xbox points while he, his roommate and girlfriend were asleep.

Oscar managed to purchased 5,000 Xbox points, thanks in part to the fact that Strope had programmed his credit card information into the remote control of the computer game system.

Nevertheless, Oscar, a Lab-hound mix, turned on the console and, by gnawing the remote, purchased the points, Strope insists.

“I realized it when I checked my phone to see what time it was (I had to be at work soon) and saw the e-mail from Microsoft confirming the purchase for $62.50,” he told Kotaku via email. “At that point it was a little after 5 a.m … not something you want to wake up to.”

Oscar has a history of gnawing, Strope said, having chewed up pillows, boxes, flip flops, socks, slippers, underwear, candles, toiler paper, bottles, work IDs and the living room blinds.

“Now, I can’t call Microsoft and say ‘My dog chewed my controller,’” Strope said. ” That excuse never worked in school for homework, what makes me think that a multi-billion dollar corporation is going to believe it?”

Michael Vick, after serving 18 months for operating a dogfighting ring, was conditionally reinstated to the NFL today.

Vick can immediately take part in preseason practices, workouts and meetings and can play in the final two preseason games — if he can find a team that will sign him.

A number of teams have already said they would not.

Once the season begins, Vick may participate in all team activities except games, but NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said he would consider Vick for full reinstatement by Week 6 of the season, at the latest, according to ESPN.

Goodell suspended Vick indefinitely in August 2007 after the former Atlanta Falcons quarterback admitted bankrolling a dogfighting operation on his property in Virginia. At the time, Goodell said Vick must show remorse before he would consider reinstating him.

“I accept that you are sincere when you say that you want to, and will, turn your life around, and that you intend to be a positive role model for others,” Goodell said in his letter to Vick. “I am prepared to offer you that opportunity. Whether you succeed is entirely in your hands.”

“Needless to say, your margin for error is extremely limited,” the letter said. “I urge you to take full advantage of the resources available to support you and to dedicate yourself to rebuilding your life and your career. If you do this, the NFL will support you.”

“I do recognize that some will never forgive him for what he did,” Goodell said.

Vick, once the highest-paid player in the league, said he was grateful for a second chance.

Vick pleaded guilty after his three co-defendants had already done so. They told of how Vick participated in the killing of dogs that didn’t perform well in test fights by shooting, hanging, drowning or slamming them to the ground.

Vick’s appearances at federal court in Richmond, Va., prompted large groups of protesters to gather outside. Many were with PETA and held signs depicting photographs of pit bulls ravaged in dogfights. Some supporters showed up as well, some wearing his No. 7 jersey.

                                Scene from “Call of Duty: World at War”

More than 100 students at a private school in Massachusetts have signed a petition protesting the killing of dogs in the video game Call of Duty: World at War.

Breanna Lucci, a 19-year-old student at the Academy of Notre Dame High School in Tyngsboro, Massachusetts, was watching her older brother play the game when she saw him kill a dog.

“My little 12-pound Pomeranian, Winnie the Pooh, is sitting next to him, and I’m thinking, ‘This looks horrible!’” Lucci told the Lowell Sun.

Lucci’s fear that some people might be driven to kill dogs because of Call of Duty led her to start a petition protesting the acts portrayed in the game.

“Killing dogs as a form of entertainment … over and over again…That’s one of the objects of the game,” she said. “Parents need to know what they are buying their kids. Killing animals should not be a form of entertainment.”

Lucci, who is the president of the school’s animal rights club, has gotten more than 100 classmates to sign her petition. She hopes to eventually send it to the game’s maker, Activision-Blizzard.

Lucci’s has also won the support of school faculty, including the moderator of her club, Barbara Vitale, an English teacher who made a point of adding, “We don’t think killing people is a good idea either.”

A London veterinarian has come out against fetch — or at least the age-old practice of throwing a stick for your dog to retrieve.

Professor Dan Brockman, of the Queen Mother Hospital of the Royal Veterinary College, University of London, suggests dog owners instead use rubber throwing toys, Frisbees or tennis balls.

Sticks, he says, can be deadly, and they cause as many injuries to dogs as cars.

“Many injuries are minor but some are horrific,” he said. “They range from minor scratches to the skin or lining of the mouth, to paralysis of limbs, life-threatening blood loss, and acute and chronic infections.

“The problem is that sticks are sharp – and very dirty. That means that, as the dog runs onto them or grabs them in its mouth, the end of the stick can easily pierce the skin, going through it to penetrate the esophagus, spinal cord, blood vessels or the dog’s neck.”

In addition to the bacteria, fungi and yeasts they might be covered with, sticks can break and small pieces can get stuck in the throat, said Brockman, who led a recent study of acute and chronic “stick injuries” in dogs.