ohmidog!

Animal control officer Jodi LeBombard had just stepped into the grisliest investigation of her career — the serial slaying of what would turn out to be 13 Italian greyhounds — when she opened a closet door in the apartment of their suspected killer.

Inside was a white Italian greyhound, bruised and bloodied and weighing about three pounds.

LeBombard, a deputy for Ingham County Animal Control and Shelter, removed the shaking puppy from the home of Michigan State University medical student Andrew David Thompson on June 21, 2011.

“I really didn’t believe that she would (survive), but I had hopes that she would,” LeBombard said. “She was pretty injured.”

The dog known as Chloe No. 2, was taken to Southside Animal Hospital, where veterinarian Joyce Heideman diagnosed internal bleeding and fluid in the dog’s lungs. Heideman also doubted the dog would live.

But, to everyone’s surprise, Chloe No. 2 lived, becoming the lone survivor of the 13 Italian greyhounds that Thompson would, at one point, admit to having killed in fits of rage, mostly by throwing them against the wall or floor, or grabbing them by the neck and beating them.

Sometimes they died instantly, sometimes, like Chloe 2, they lingered for a few days. After one Italian greyhound died, Thompson, 24, would buy another.

The State News in Lansing told the story of the lone survivor last week, including it’s happy ending: Renamed Jezabelle, the dog now lives with Heideman and the veterinarian’s five other dogs.

Heidman said it was three days into the lethargic puppy’s recovery that she saw some hope. When taken out to go to the bathroom, the puppy saw a small leaf land nearby and, with a sudden burst of energy, pounced on it.

“That was the first time I knew she would actually live because she showed there was something in there,” Heideman said.

Six days into her recovery, Heideman adopted the puppy, taking her home to live with her two boxers, two labs and a one-eyed pit bull Heideman rescued after he was abused with a baseball bat.

“I never really thought I would actually adopt her, but I kind of fell in love,” she explained. “She snuggles up next to you, and you just feel like, ‘Oh, it doesn’t matter what happened today, I’m just happy now.’”

Despite her abuse, Jezabelle isn’t skittish or  anxious around humans. “She seems to be a very loving and kindhearted dog that wouldn’t hold a grudge against anyone,” Heideman said.

Thompson, who was suspended from medical school after his arrest, faced 13 felony charges of animal killing in Okemos and East Lansing. He ended up pleading guilty to three of the charges and was sentenced in June to five years probation.

Judge Paula Manderfield said she saw little benefit in incarcerating him. She  mandated he continue to receive psychiatric treatment, pay more than $5,000 in court fines and restitution, perform 400 hours of community service and work at least 30 hours per week.

Heideman, like many, found that sentence way too light.

“People who write bad checks get more time in jail than somebody who killed (13) dogs,” she said. “There’s something wrong with our legal system.”

More than a year after saving the puppy from a closet, Deputy LeBombard — to whom Thompson initially confessed – still drops by Heideman’s animal hospital to visit the dog.

“I get to go over there and give her hugs,” LeBombard said. “You can’t even hold her she’s so squirmy. She’s a sweetheart, and she couldn’t have gotten a better home.”

(Photos: The Italian greyhound now named Jezabelle; by Natalie Kolb / The State News. You can find more photos of Jezabelle here.)

A judge yesterday reduced the bail of an osteopathic medicine student charged with killing a dozen Italian greyhounds, from $1 million to $50,000.

At a hearing in Ingham County Circuit Court, Judge Paula Manderfield granted a motion by Michigan State University student Andrew David Thompson’s attorney.

That means Thompson, 24, who has been suspended from Michigan State University’s College of Osteopathic Medicine, can get of jail by posting $5,000 bond.

Thompson has arranged to live with a friend at an Okemos apartment, his attorney Stacia Buchanan said.

Manderfield ordered Thompson to wear a monitor that can track his exact location, not own pets and remain in his residence from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Thompson is charged in two separate cases in two jurisdictions with killing the dogs between September 2010 and June 2011. All the dogs were purchased from breeder websites. He told investigators he killed them out of anger by throwing them to the ground or against a wall, grabbing them by the neck or beating them.

The felony charges of animal killing and torture are punishable by up to four years in prison each, according to the Lansing State Journal.

Thompson, who is from Arizona, has no adult or juvenile criminal record, Buchanan said. He was seeing a psychiatrist when he was arrested and suffers from bipolar disorder, authorities have said.

For our archived coverage of this case, click here.

Andrew Thompson, a Michigan State University medical student charged with killing 10 dogs, now faces three more charges.

The new charges also pertain to killing dogs, bringing to 13 — or 14, by some other media accounts — the number of canines the student is alleged to have killed in his apartment, WILX reported.

The 10 dogs he was initially accused of killing were all Italian greyhounds.

Few details have emerged about the case.

Investigators say Thompson had been bringing the dogs to his apartment over the past nine months, where the crimes were committed. A concerned neighbor, who saw the dogs arrive but never saw them again, tipped off authorities.

Thompson was suspended from school on June 23. He’s currently being held on $100,000 bond.

In our post on the killings yesterday, we remarked the official statement the university released about the case seemed a little odd, specifically this part: “The alleged actions do not reflect the values of MSU or the ethics of the medical profession.”

We’ve gotten more comments disputing whether that’s odd than we have comments of concern about the murdered dogs, or about the scant few facts of the case that have been made public.

While the medical and veterinary schools at MSU haven’t exactly led the way in using alternatives to live dogs in their teaching and research — it was just last year that the vet school stopped using “terminal surgery labs,” in which live dogs are killed after being used to practice surgery — we’re not saying there is any connection between the ex-student’s alleged acts and the school.

But we will say this: Police and prosecutors owe the public some information about what’s going on.

Sometimes artists can sink as low as … well, NFL quarterbacks and the designers of cell phone applications.

Back in 1977,  when he was 25, artist Tom Otterness produced “Shot Dog Film,” in which he chained and killed a small dog he adopted from a shelter for that purpose. The dog’s slow death is shown  repeatedly in the movie.

Now the Brooklyn-based sculptor has been commissioned for $750,000 by a mysterious donor to sculpt whimsical bronze lions and cubs as a gift to be installed outside the Battery Park City branch of the New York Public Library.

Downtown’s Community Board 1, in a 23-7 vote last week, “wholeheartedly” gave the project its blessing, according to the New York Post, despite outrage from animal lovers.

Otterness is best known for his bulbous bronze people and creatures, which can be found at various locations around New York, such as at the 14th Street subway station in Manhattan.

In 2008, the sculptor apologized for killing a dog for his “avante garde” movie:

“Thirty years ago when I was 25 years old, I made a film in which I shot a dog. It was an indefensible act that I am deeply sorry for. Many of us have experienced profound emotional turmoil and despair. Few have made the mistake I made. I hope people can find it in their hearts to forgive me.”

Not everyone has.

“Otterness’ new work won’t be one that PETA members will be rushing to see,” Colleen O’Brien, a PETA spokeswoman, told New York’s Metro. “Any man who would adopt a dog and then film himself shooting the animal needs a good psychiatrist — not another art show.”

An email campaign, aimed at ensuring dachshund killer Dudley Ramsay receive a full two-year sentence for fatally bashing his dog against a bathtub, failed to produce the intended result.

Ramsay was sentenced to just four months in prison on Friday by New York Judge Michael Gary.

Ramsay, of Fort Greene, was convicted of aggravated animal cruelty in March for disciplining the 5-month-old dog, named Junior, by smashing him against a bathtub, causing six fractured ribs and damage to the pup’s lungs and liver, according to The Brooklyn Paper. Then he waited several hours before taking the dog to a veterinary hospital, where he died.

Syzmanski

An email campaign was launched after Ramsay’s conviction by Mike Szymanski, of Greenwood Heights, who owns three dachshunds and writes the Dachshund Examiner for Examiner.com.

“This is a tragedy,” said Szymanski, who noted Ramsay had freely admitted by then to killing another dachshund earlier. The sentence, he said, “is a fraction of what Ramsay certainly deserves. It was a slap on the wrist and showed that the judge didn’t care.”

A spokesman for the district attorney’s office said it received over 100 emails from pet owners across the country, demanding that Ramsay gets the maximum sentence. Deputy District Attorney Carol Moran pushed for the maximum sentence, the spokesman said, but the sentencing decision rested with the judge.

“People have to realize that Dachshund lovers can be way more radical than the Tea Party if we find out than an injustice has been done,” Szymanski said. “This is something that could cost this judge his office.”

A police officer in Danville, Virginia, shot and killed a miniature dachsund named Killer Monday night, an action the department says was justified.

The officer was returning to his car after trying to serve a warrant, when a dachsund living next door came “running throught the yard directly at him from the rear,” according to a police department press release.

Police say the 11-pound dog was growling and that the officer shot him when he “lunged” and “attacked him.”

The press release says the officer had only seconds to consider his options — “run for the safety of the police vehicle, attempt to distract the dog from its attack, try to use pepper spray or baton, or use his firearm.”

Police said an “investigation revealed that the dog was named ‘Killer’, was a Dachshund, had displayed aggressive tendencies before to others, and belonged at the house next door to where the officer was attempting to serve the warrant.”

The press release added, “Shooting a dog which is actively presenting a threat to an officer is within the department’s policy. An officer is not required to ‘take a bite’ from any dog, including small breeds, because any breaking of the skin can transmit rabies. If the attacking dog cannot be identified and captured and quarantined after the attack, the officer must take a series of rabies vaccine shots.”