ohmidog!

A British talk show host – while he was quite genteel about it, at least from an American perspective — threw some hard questions at Cesar Millan last week.

Alan Titchmarsh, a UK afternoon talk show host, politely accused Millan of using old-fashioned and inhumane techniques that include punching, kicking and using shock collars on dogs.

The “Dog Whisperer” — appearing just slightly uncomfortable at some points — responded calmly, asserting that he never punches dogs, but only touches them to redirect negative behavior.

Millan, while some in America are critical of his methods, is even more controversial in the UK, where many, including the RSPCA, view his techniques as unacceptable.

“Adverse training techniques which have been seen to be used by Cesar Millan can cause pain and fear for dogs and may worsen their behavioral problems,” the RSPCA said in a statement read on the air. “The RSPCA believes that using such techniques is unacceptable, nor are they necessary to change dog behavior for the better when other dog trainers use reward-based methods to train dogs very effectively.”

“We’ve never had so many complaints about a guest,” Titchmarsh told Millan.

Elevator surveillance cameras have once again caught an apparent dog abuser in the act.

Brian Freeman, 28, who police say is the man seen repeatedly kicking a pit bull mix in this Aug. 26 video, was arrested on charges of torturing and injuring an animal.

The New York Daily News reports charges were filed against Freeman Monday when he appeared in court on a marijuana possession charge.

The video was taken by a surveillance camera in an elevator at the Wagner Houses on E. 120th Street in Harlem.

Freeman was not the first to be charged with cruelty to animals after being identified on an elevator surveillance video.

Two years ago, Chris Grant was arrested and charged with animal cruelty after being recorded kicking a pomeranian-Chihuahua mix on an elevator at the Grant Houses.

Later the same month Tiara Davis, another resident of the Grant Houses was captured on video abusing her Pomeranian.

And last year, New York City police released a video of Irving Sanchez abusing his pit bull mix dog in an elevator at the Wagner Houses. Sanchez was charged with aggravated animal cruelty.

The city and PETA had offered a combined $7,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the latest incident.

Freeman, according to the Daily News, was recognized by detectives and identified. His arrest record includes charges for assault, robbery and marijuana possession.

Police said they don’t know the whereabouts of the victimized dog or Freeman’s relationship to it.

The North Carolina Highway Patrol officer who was fired in 2007 after being videotaped kicking his drug-sniffing dog has returned to work.

Charles Jones will be a sergeant in the patrol’s special operations unit, reconstructing accidents, Highway Patrol spokesman Jeff Gordon said Monday.

His rehiring is in response to a court order issued in February. A Superior Court judge, the state personnel commission and an administrative law judge all ruled that Jones should get his job back with the Highway Patrol, according to the Raleigh News and Observer.

The video of Jones kicking his canine partner, Ricoh, was posted on YouTube, leading then-Gov. Mike Easley to get involved. Jones superiors have testified that the governor’s involvement led them to fire Jones, who they had planned to only discipline.

Jones was filmed kicking Ricoh and suspending him by a leash attached to a railing with his rear paws on the ground. The dog had refused to release a piece of fire hose he had been given as a reward for alerting officers to the presence of drugs, according to court documents.

Jones maintained that he was acting within patrol policy. He appealed the decision to dismiss him and won — a decision most recently upheld by a state appeals court.

These are becoming — sadly — almost a video staple.

New York City police have released another surveillance video of a dog being abused in a public housing elevator.

This time, it’s a 46-year-old man who swinging a pit bull puppy against an elevator wall, then kicking the animal and slapping him in the face with his leash.

The man was identified as Irving Sanchez, and he was charged with aggravated animal cruelty on Monday, police said.

The incident took place at the Wagner public-housing complex in East Harlem on Sunday night.

The dog, named Max, was not seriously injured, police said, and is now in the custody of the ASPCA.

The charge against Sanchez carries a penalty of up to two years in prison.

Last year, at least three other cases of dogs being abused on elevators were captured on video in the Grant Houses in Harlem.

Security-camera footage that appears to show a man kicking and jumping on a puppy’s crate has landed on YouTube, prompting an investigation by the Massachusetts SPCA and threats of a boycott of the liquor store in which the incident apparently occured.

The Boston Globe reports the stomping of a beagle appears to have taken place in Blanchard’s Liquors, a popular store in Allston.

The one-minute clip was posted to YouTube Thursday last week. The incident, according to a recording stamp on the security camera footage, took place Feb. 6.

The video shows a man stride past the register of a liquor store, kick a crate containing a small dog, then jump on the crate, partially crushing it, before walking away. A person in a baseball cap then goes to check on the puppy, before a younger man walks into the frame, grabs a leash from the counter, and takes the dog away.

“It’s a horrible thing,” said Christine Moore, a 25-year-old former Allston resident and Blanchard’s customer who called for a boycott on Craigslist and her Facebook page.

A YouTube member named “ericword” posted the original clip. Reached by the Globe through YouTube e-mail, ericword identified himself in a phone interview as a 20-year-old Blanchard’s worker.

Giving his name only as Eric, he said he was suspended from his job for posting the clip. A Blanchard’s manager declined to comment to the newspaper.

The MSPCA’s law enforcement division, which has police power to bring felony charges, is investigating the matter, said Brian Adams, a spokesman.

“To the best of our knowledge, the dog in the video is OK,,” said Adams, encouraging those with information about the case to call the MSPCA at 800-628-5808.

North Carolina’s State Highway Patrol said Monday that it will use dogs solely to sniff out narcotics, and avoid the kind of rough training tactics – swinging, suspending and kicking of patrol dogs — that caused a national furor when one trooper’s treatment of his dog showed up on Youtube.

“This is rebuilding the unit from the ground up,” said Capt. Everett Clendenin, a patrol spokesman.

The patrol suspended the canine unit in April after several troopers testified in a personnel hearing that the dogs had been subjected to disciplinary tactics such as swinging them around by their leads, suspending them until they nearly passed out, shocking them with stun guns and throwing plastic bottles filled with pebbles at them.

The troopers defended Sgt. Charles L. Jones, who was fired last year for kicking his police dog, Ricoh, several times after suspending him so that his hind legs barely touched the ground.

The Raleigh News and Observer reports that the patrol plans to acquire six Labrador retrievers, which are known for being passive, obedient dogs with good noses for narcotics. The dogs will be paired with newly trained officers who were not part of the previous canine unit. The new unit should be up and running by mid 2009.

The patrol said that the new program will not use dogs to track down suspects or defend their handlers. As a result, the patrol does not need aggressive dogs such as Belgian Malinois or German shepherds, nor does it need to use strict disciplinary measures so the dogs will obey, Clendenin said.

“Our dogs are going to strictly be sniffing and searching for narcotics,” he said.

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