ohmidog!

Reports from citizens about a lion on the loose in Norfolk led police to check in with the Virginia Zoo to make sure both of its lions were in their cages.

And that piqued the interest of Virginia Zoo Director Greg Bockheim (above) enough to track down the alleged cat, who turned out to be a dog.

It wasn’t the first time that Charles the Monarch — a Labradoodle shaved to look like a lion — has been mistaken for being king of the jungle, or the first time police were called about him.

Police received a morning call about a baby lion on the loose, on Colley Avenue near 50th Street. The first thing officers did was make sure both of Norfolk’s real lions, Mramba and Zola, remained in their cages at the zoo, the Virginian-Pilot reported.

Later, they realized the animal on the loose was Charles, whose owner has him shaved to look like the mascot of Old Dominion University.

Owner Daniel Painter said Charles — who has his own page on Facebook – typically hangs out at his business, Daniel’s Lawn and Garden Center, on Colley Avenue.

“I tell people he’s a Lab-a-lion, and half the people believe that,” he said.

Painter said police have told him before they’ve received reports about the dog from callers who thought he was a lion. Painter says he sometimes takes his dog to the zoo, then watches people run to their cars.

“They think it’s a lion out there,” he said.

(Photo: Virginia Zoo)

Police in Commerce City, Colo., are reviewing this video, but say they believe officers acted appropriately when they fired five shots at this dog — even though she was secured with a catchpole.

The dog, a three-year-old named Chloe, described by police as a pit bull, died.

Police had been called by a resident who saw the unfamiliar dog loose in the neighborhood. He was unaware that she was being cared for by a neighbor.

According to the neighbor caring for Chloe, she’d secured the dog in the garage before going shopping. Apparently, the dog tripped a sensor, leading the door to open.

The neighbor who reported the dog to police,  Kenny Collins, said the dog didn’t appear aggressive, but he was concerned about her running loose. It was Collins’ son who used his cell phone to shoot the video of police shooting the dog.

The dog was sitting inside the garage when police Tased her, got a catchpole around her neck and then, as she squirmed to get free, shot at her five times.

“An animal control agent was able to place a ‘catchpole’ around the dog’s neck,” Commerce City Police said in an intitial statement. “The pit bull remained extremely agitated and continued to attempt to attack the animal control agent. Due to the dog’s size and aggressive demeanor, it could not be controlled on the catchpole. For the safety of the animal control agent and the community, a police officer shot and killed the dog.”

Collins said it appeared to him the dog was simply trying to run away from the officers.

“I totally disagree with it, totally,” Collins said. “The dog was not attacking people and that’s not what I said when I called 911.”

Commerce City Police Detective Mike Saunders said the video is being reviewed: “We need time to look at the video. We need time to look over the officer’s report. And we need time to speak to the officer before we can comment.” Saunders said.

9NEWS dropped off a copy of the video at the Commerce City Police station  Sunday.

Alicia Hall, an animal behavior technician with the Dumb Friends League who reviewed the video for 9 News, said:

“The animal could still potentially be a danger, but if the catchpole is being used appropriately, the animal should be restrained safely. As far as I can see from the video, it looks like the dog actually walked right into the catchpole as it was coming out of the garage and was safely restrained.”

Humans had been searching more than 10 days for the monkey that escaped from Wake Forest University’s Primate Center, but it was a dog who finally spotted her.

Cassidy Garwood, 14, told WGHP/Fox 8 that her dog, Keeley, saw the monkey Tuesday afternoon in some trees outside their house on Frye Bridge Road.

When the family went to see what Keeley was barking at, they saw the 8-pound, one-foot-tall macaque jumping from tree to tree.

The family called authorities and officials from the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office, Lexington Police and Wake Forest soon arrived on the Garwoods’ property, where the monkey was brought down with three tranquilizing darts and returned to the research facility.

Richard Young, who heads the animal resources program for Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, told the Winston-Salem Journal that the monkey is doing fine and will be quarantined for six weeks.

After that, he added (in a word choice he probably regrets) she’ll be placed “back with her other cage mates, inmates, back in her family.”

The monkey outsmarted two barriers at the center on June 29 and fled into the woods, prompting a search in which law enforcement, university officials and animal control officers set traps with apples and bananas and even used recordings of a baby monkey in their efforts to capture her.

The 16-year-old macaque is a breeder, producing offspring that are used for medical testing. She came to the primate center in 2008 after being captured in Indonesia.

According to the website for Wake Forest’s Primate Center, staff “use nonhuman primates to study six of the 10 major causes of death in the United States.”

The monkey’s escape led to criticism from some animal welfare groups, including PETA, which filed a formal complaint July 4 with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The group urged the agency to investigate Wake Forest for possible violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act, including failure to ensure that the primate housing is safe and secure.

Young said that Wake Forest has beefed up security at the primate center.

 
This little beauty was found wandering the streets of Dundalk Saturday.

She was taken in by one good samaritan and passed along to another good samaritan, who is fostering her in Baltimore until a home can be found — either her original one or a new one.

She being called ”Ella.”

A spirited and loving mutt — my guess is a Rottweiler/Jack Russell mix …”Jack Rottsell?” — she was found just off Dundalk Avenue, near Sollers Point Road.

She was found without a collar or tags, is estimated to be about five months old and gets along wonderfully with other dogs.

If you’re interested in Ella, contact Lori at l.besse@verizon.net

Dogs bark when something’s amiss. We humans sign petitions. The time has come to do a little of both.

Not to many working people have the leeway to attend a 10 a.m. City Council meeting, but for those who can, Tuesday’s meeting in city hall represents a rare opportunity to let city leaders know not just that their $1,000 fine for an off leash dog is out of line, but that the time has come to make this a more dog-friendly city.

How? By coming through with promised dog parks, by instituting off leash hours, at least on an experimental basis at a city park or two, and by not dumping on that substantial population of voters that has dogs.

Petitions calling upon the city to reduce the recently imposed $1,000 fine for letting a dog off its leash are now circulating around town and online. You can find, and sign, the online version here.

At tomorrow’s meeting the city will take up a proposal to reduce the fine. Also introduced will be an amendment authored by council member William Cole that would allow the city’s director of recreation and parks to enact off leash hours at city parks — something that currently can’t be done because of the leash law. Cole’s amendment would exempt city-approved off leash hours from the law.

Of course, that doesn’t mean off leash hours will be approved, only that they can be.

Cole said he expects the fine reduction and the off-leash authorization to eventually be approved by the council.

“Yes, I believe that both will get support for a majority of the Council,” he said. “There appears to be rather broad support for the off-leash language, but I haven’t started counting votes.”

Tuesday’s meeting is a hearing (on Bill 09-0322) before the Judiciary & Legislative Investigations Committee. The committee is chaired by Councilman Jim Kraft, and its other members are Robert Curran, Rikki Spector, Agnes Welch and Cole.

The meeting is in the City Council Chambers on the 4th floor of City Hall. (A picture ID required for admission to City Hall.)

Mayor Don Call turned himself in Wednesday and was charged with two felony counts of cruelty to animals and one misdemeanor count of criminal discharge of a firearm.

But he said he had no regrets about killing two dogs, who, according to their owner, were chained at the time.

Call, the mayor of McCune, Kan., said he warned the dogs’ owner on Jan. 12 that if the dogs were found running loose in town again, he would shoot them.

After receiving a complaint about the dogs Sunday, he drove to the home of their owner and shot them.

“They was lying on the sidewalk on the front of the house,” Fox News quoted him as saying. “I shot them with a 9mm rifle … five or six times.”

The dog’s owner, Duane Wahl, said his dogs never bothered anyone and that they were chained when the mayor drove up and shot them from his car window. “They weren’t vicious dogs. They don’t bite people.”

We’ve gotten a couple of comments from McCune residents. You can find them at the bottom of our original entry on Mayor Call.