ohmidog!

Supermodel Maggie Rizer is blaming United Airlines for the death of her golden retriever, Bea.

The two-year-old dog died while in the cargo hold of a United fight from New York City to San Francisco.

According to a necropsy by her veterinarian, heat stroke was the cause.

Rizer said both Bea and her other dog, Albert, had been cleared by a veterinarian just four days before she flew home about two weeks ago to California after vacationing on the East Coast.

When Rizer and her husband, businessman Alex Mehran, landed in San Francisco, United workers told them Bea had died. One of them, she says, told her, ”This happens a lot.”

“I was completely hysterical, I’m surprised I didn’t get arrested,” Rizer told the New York Daily News.

Rizer also claims that workers lied to her, saying Bea had been taken for a necropsy when she was actually still in the cargo area.

Bea’s body was given to the family later that day, and an autopsy by a family vet showed she had died of heat stroke, said Rizer, a covergirl who modeled for Louis Vuitton, Versace, and Calvin Klein.

A United spokesperson said the airline has transported more than 550,000 pets, with less than .1% of those resulting in deaths.

“That said, I just want to make it clear this isn’t something we’re not sympathetic to, certainly when it does happen it’s devastating,” spokesperson Mary Ryan said.

United is reviewing the incident, and has returned the $1,800 Rizer paid to transport her dog.

(Photo: Maggie Rizer and Bea, via Twitter)

Watching an Italian supermodel suffer in a hot car may not spur exactly the same emotions as watching a dog trapped in one, but we’ve got to give PETA credit at least for keeping this issue in the forefront.

Elisabetta Canalis, who previously posed for PETA in an anti-fur ad, braves the heat again in this new public service announcement reminding people not to leave their dogs in parked cars.

“… Elisabetta endures the panic and pain that a dog feels when left in a car on a summer day — even with the windows open a crack,” PETA says. “…. As panic and anxiety set in, Elisabetta’s condition deteriorates rapidly with the addition of excessive thirst, lethargy, lack of coordination, and a rapid heartbeat.”

Elisabetta aside, the facts are these: On even a 78-degree day, the temperature inside a shaded car can rise to 90 degrees; in the sun it can climb to 160 — and in just a matter of minutes.

Animals can quickly suffer heatstroke, sustain brain damage and die in as little as 15 minutes.

Here’s PETA’s advice should you ever confront a dog in that situation:

Ever since they ended their engagement, Hugh Hefner and former fiancee Crystal Harris have been quibbling over who gets to keep the dog.

Charlie, a King Charles cavalier spaniel, has apparently bounced back and forth between the Playboy model and the Playboy mogul.

Guess which of the three we actually give a hoot about.

Harris, who departed with a three carat diamond ring worth an estimated $90,000, and a Bentley, apparently still wants the dog, too, according to the Daily Mail.

Harris, 25, called off her engagement to Hefner, 85, in June, announcing it on her website and, at the same time, asking the media for “‘the privacy we deserve during this time.” Then she went on to take part in interviews about the break-up and their sex life.

Hefner expressed his regrets about the break-up in a tweet both realistic and philosophical, not to mention maybe the understatement of the decade: “After all is said and done, staying single is probably the best,” he posted.

He also reported on Twitter that he missed the dog, who Harris took with her when she left.

Then he tweeted that the dog had been brought back: “Crystal brought Charlie back because she thinks he’s happier here & I appreciate it, because I really missed him,” Hefner posted.

Apparently the matter isn’t entirely resolved.

“We both love the puppy,” Hefner told People magazine. “I told her if she wants to keep the ring and the Bentley, then maybe I can keep the puppy. I hope we will work it out.”

Catholics are cross with Joanna Krupa, the Playboy cover girl and “Dancing with the Stars” competitor whose latest ad for PETA features her wearing nothing but angel wings and a crucifix.

Krupa unveiled the new  “Be an Angel for Animals” PETA campaign at a protest this week outside Barkworks, a Los Angeles pet store that sells puppies.

The campaign, which urges people to adopt dogs rather than buy them, was quick to draw criticism from Catholic leaders.

“The fact is that cats and dogs are a lot safer in pet stores than they are in the hands of PETA employees,” Catholic League President Bill Donohue said in a statement. “Moreover, pet stores don’t rip off Christian iconography and engage in cheap irreligious claims. PETA is a fraud.”

“It’s totally inappropriate,” said Deal Hudson, publisher of InsideCatholic.com. “It’s another instance of disrespect toward Christianity and another example of the kind of abuse that would never occur with any other major religion, because the outcry would be so immediate and so loud that the people behind it would immediately retreat.”

Krupa, herself a Catholic, responded that she’s just doing what the church should be doing — and by that, we’re pretty sure she meant fighting for defenseless animals as opposed to shedding clothing.

“As a practicing Catholic, I am shocked that the Catholic League is speaking out against my PETA ads, which I am very proud of,” the New York Daily News quoted her as saying.

“I’m doing what the Catholic Church should be doing, working to stop senseless suffering of animals, the most defenseless of god’s creation. I am a voice for innocent animals who are being neglected and dumped by the millions at shelters. In my heart I know that Jesus would never condone the suffering that results when dogs and cats are allowed to breed.”

Elle Macpherson’s labradoodle is starring in a national advertising campaign as the face of Dogside.com, a dog fashion brand.

The brand boasts that five-year-old Bella is ideal for showing off its leads, coats, scarves and bowls for “today’s stylish urban dog.”

Macpherson, 46 – known as ”The Body” during her modeling days, known as a millionaire businesswoman now — has her own lingerie and cosmetics lines, and has often been photographed walking Bella near her Notting Hill home, according to London’s Daily Mail. Bella is being promoted as “The Dog’s Body.”

Macpherson is said to be receiving a  five-figure sum for her dog’s work.

Chimps may share more of our genes, but dogs have lived with us for so long – in our houses, on our beds (and, of course, sneaking out for late night poker games) – they may evolved into a better model for understanding human social behavior, according to a new study.

In terms of cooperation, attachment to people, their ability to imitate and their understanding of human communication (verbally and non-verbally) dogs have become not just man’s best friend, but, socially, his closest counterpart in the animal kingdom, according to a paper accepted for publication in the journal Advances in the Study of Behavior.

They might even be thinking more like us, too. the Discovery Channel’s Jennifer Viegas reports.

Researchers believe adapting to the same living conditions may have resulted in the similarities. “That shared environment has led to the emergence of functionally shared behavioral features in dogs and humans and, in some cases, functionally analogous underlying cognitive skills” lead author Jozsef Topal explained to Discovery News.

(Digression: While I couldn’t agree more with that — to the extent I understand it — I don’t agree with what Topal says it should lead to:  dogs serving as the “new chimpanzees” in psychological studies. In fact, I’m not much on the chimps being used, either, or poor college students, at least when such experimentation gets into using drugs, scalpels and electrical implements. )

The study by Topal and his team at the Institute for Psychology at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences found that dogs kept as pets can be regarded in many respects as “infants in canine clothing,” and that many dog-owner relationships mirror human parental bonds with children.

In one of many recent studies conducted by the team, Topal and his colleagues taught both a 16-month-old human child and mature dogs to repeat multiple demonstrated actions on verbal command — “Do it!,” shouted in Hungarian.

The actions included turning around in circles, vocalizing, jumping up, jumping over a horizontal rod, putting an object into a container, carrying an object to the owner or parent, according to the study.

While I don’t find that all that amazing, it is fascinating to think about how dogs, the longer they live with humans and the closer our relationships become, might continue to evolve in the household. I’m guessing there are already some homes that tune into TV shows they think the dog will like. How much longer until the dog controls the remote?