ohmidog!

Officials in Pennsylvania believe they have found the source of that pit bull corpse that turned up in Chester County — a dogfighting operation they say operated out of a home in West Brandywine.

Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan announced the arrests of a husband and wife Wednesday.

He described their home as “a house of pain and horror for the dogs that lived there. The defendants’ dogs lived by one rule: Fight and win, or die.”

Hogan said five young children also lived in the home, one of whom was  bitten by one of the dogs. In retaliation, that animal was hung with a coaxial cable, he said.

The Unionville Times reports that, according to the criminal complaint, the father, who referred to the animals as “livestock,” acknowledged killing at least 10 dogs by hanging or electrocution, and said the couple was “planning on making the training and fighting of pit bull dogs a family business.”

Shane Santiago and Laura Acampora, both 33, are accused of operating a dog-fighting business that led to the deaths of at least 10 dogs and the maiming of countless more.

Six living dogs were recovered from the home and are in the custody of the SPCA, according to the York Daily Record

The investigation began after two abandoned pit bulls were found — one, who had been burned, dead in cage; another maimed and burned but still alive, alongside a road. That second dog, Radar, is recovering under the care of the Chester County SPCA.

The younger of the pit bulls was found on the same road the Santiago’s lived on, just miles away.

Santiago was first identified as a suspect when he was arrested on drug charges as part of Operation Silent Night, an operation aimed at curbing violent crime in Coatesville. Neighbors had complained about large numbers of people visiting the property, many from out of state and most bringing dogs with them.

Investigators observed the couple from afar, and went through their trash. They finally managed to search the property after the landlord, who was evicting the Santiagos, gave permission.

“When we got into that home, what we found was a nightmare,” Hogan said. “This was a full-scale operation of not only dog fighting, but dog training, dog breeding and dog killing.”

They discovered a treadmill, tools used to encourage aggression, and an arena in the basement, with blood-spattered plywood barriers set up around the fighting area. Up to 16 pit bulls were kept in the home at one time, Hogan said.

Santiago and Acampora are charged with more than 30 counts of animal cruelty, endangering the welfare of a child, and conspiracy to commit animal cruelty. Both were being held in Chester County Prison.

(Photos: Unionville Times)

A mother dog was photographed rescuing her litter of puppies from a house fire in Chile.

In the photos, a German shepherd mix named “Amanda” carries five of her 10-day old pups in her mouth, dropping each onto a fire truck as flames ravaged her owner’s home Thursday in Santa Rosa de Temuco, Chile.

The fire, at the home of Omar Torres, the father of boxer Tumbaito Jose Torres, was apparently the result of a car bomb explosion.

The puppies were transported to La Clínica Veterinaria Altamira where four are recuperating with their mother. 

One of the puppies died on Thursday night after suffering burns to his abdomen and mouth.

Veterinarian Felipe Lara told the Chilean newspaper Soy Temuco that Amanda defended her puppies when they tried to take them away for treatment.

(Photos: Associated Press /Jose Monsalve, Diario El Austral de La Araucaria)

A Michigan mom says she’d only turned her back for a few seconds when she noticed here 14-month-old son had disappeared.

She rushed to the other side of her house to see her son Stanley in the swimming pool, and Bear, her black labrador retriever beside him, struggling to keep the boy’s head above water.

“We all believe that if it wasn’t for Bear he would have sunk down,” Patricia Drauch  told the Sturgis Journal. “It was incredible to see Bear holding him up like that.”

Drauch said her son was unresponsive when removed from the water. Unable to get a cell phone signal, she took him to the Marcellus Fire Department Sunday afternoon. On the way to the hospital, Stanley regained consciousness. He was found to be in good condition and later released.

Drauch said she has had Bear since he was a puppy.

“I’ve always told him (Bear), that these are his babies and he has to watch over them,” she said.

Drauch said she realizes the outcome could have been much worse.

“Don’t leave your kids outside alone no matter what age. Keep your eyes on them at all times,” she said. “It only takes a second.”

(Photo: Sturgis Journal)

The “Suitcase 6″ are headed to new homes.

Found zipped up inside a canvas suitcase left behind a grocery store in Toledo last month, the six bulldog pups and their mom are being awarded to winners of a lottery held among the more than 100 people who wanted to adopt them.

One of the puppies was adopted Monday afternoon by the foster mom who had been caring for him. The other five, and the mother, are being given to those whose names were pulled in a drawing, according to John Dinon, executive director of the Toldeo Humane Society. He said 132 applications submitted by those interested in giving the dogs a new home,

The organization also received more than 1,000 phone inquiries from across the country, according to the Toledo Blade.

The former owner of the dogs, Howard Davis, was charged with abandonment. He was easily tracked down by authorities because he dropped the dogs off in a suitcase with an ID tag that had his name and address on it.

Davis, who was ordered by the judge to neuter and spay all the animals in his household, will be back in court June 22 for sentencing.

At the humane society on Tuesday, Mark Taylor of Toledo was the first of the lottery winners to arrive, showing up 30 minutes before the shelter opened.

Taylor chose the pup with a spot on his white head, and planned to name him Augustus. “I knew I wanted him as soon as I saw him,” Mr. Taylor said. “He’s laid back. He reminds me of me.”

Jennice and Eddie Collier of Shaker Heights, were also winners, and allowed their 16-year-old daughter, Shontese, to miss school to pick out one of the puppies. Shontese, whose parents said had been asking for a dog for five years, named the one she chose Princess.

Other adopters included an Oregon couple, who chose the solid white puppy and named him Brutus; and David Davison of Toledo, chose the female puppy with the spot on her eye, naming her Petey because she reminded him of the dog on the Our Gang and Little Rascals series.

David and Charlotte Swincicki, who live on 10 acres in Providence Township, adopted Maddie, the mother dog, who stood guard over the suitcase filled with her pups after they were abandoned.

(Photo: THE BLADE / DAVE ZAPOTOSKY)

A Massachusetts pit bull is being credited with pulling her owner off the railroad tracks, saving her from an oncoming freight train.

And that, lest you find it hard to believe, is according to both the driver of the train and the woman’s son, a Boston police officer.

The woman survived, uninjured, but the dog — named Lilly — was severely hurt and lost a front leg.

Boston police officer David Lanteigne said he rescued Lilly from a shelter to serve as a companion for his mother, who suffers from alcoholism.

“We saved her life and she saved my mom’s life,” he told WCVB in Boston.

Lanteigne’s mother, Christine Spain, apparently fell unconscious onto train tracks in Shirley last Wednesday.

When help arrived, Lilly was covered in blood but still standing guard over her owner.

Lilly was taken to an emergency animal hospital in Acton, and later to Angell Animal Medical Center in Boston.

“Lilly was either pushing or pulling my mother off the tracks,” said Lanteigne. “There wasn’t enough time and … just prior to the train making impact Lilly had intentionally gotten between the train and my mother, and had taken the hit.”

“I’m supposed to be the strong one. I’m supposed to be here for her, but she’s been so great, so tough through all this,” Lanteigne said of his dog. “It almost seems like she’s the one comforting me and being there for me and making me feel better.”

(Photo: Courtesy of Angell Animal Medical Center)

Sydney, a beagle-terrier mix in Michigan, has taken on the job of nursing five kittens.

The dog’s owner, Heather Rector, of Portage, brought the kittens home last week after they were rescued from a construction site.

Sydney’s maternal instincts — she has had three litters of her own — kicked right in.

And, stranger yet, she started lactating, her owner says.

“Two days of them being here, she was fully lactating, and … she hasn’t stopped lactating yet,” Rector said.

Sydney is feeding and bathing the kittens and won’t let them wander far without bringing them back to her bed.

Rector, a new mother herself, says she’s proud of Sydney’s compassion.  ”You don’t see a lot of people or animals do that anymore, and I think she did the exact thing I would have done.”

A Toledo man stuffed six English bulldog puppies and their mother into a piece of luggage and abandoned them next to a trash bin — apparently not realizing that the canvas suitcase had a tag on it bearing his contact information.

The bag of pups — three males, three females and their mother — was dropped off behind a city business. They were picked up April 4 by the Lucas County Dog Warden’s office, according to the Toledo Blade.

On Tuesday, two counts of abandonment Tuesday were filed against Howard Davis, who lives about a quarter mile from where the dogs were dropped.

Gene Boros, a Toledo Area Humane Society cruelty officer who questioned Davis, said the man told him he had not abandoned the dogs and had given them to someone in Michigan. Boros said Davis appeared to be in the process of moving out of his home.

Passers-by initially found the dogs and unzipped the bag to give them air, said Julie Lyle, Lucas County dog warden.

“There are witnesses who said that the female is indeed Mr. Davis’ dog and that he had been trying to sell puppies,” said John Dinon, executive director of the Toledo Area Humane Society.

Davis was to be charged with two counts  of either first-degree or second-degree misdemeanor abandonment. Davis will be issued a citation and given a court date, but he was not arrested, Dinon said.

The dogs were transferred to the Humane Society, where the pups and their mother, now named Maddie,  are reported to be doing well.

They will be going to a foster home by the end of the week and won’t be available for adoption for at least four weeks — possibly longer since they are part of a criminal case.

(Photo: THE BLADE / DAVE ZAPOTOSKY)

Citizen journalist and dog poop vigilante Andy Ross reports that a four-year-old girl in New Haven had to be treated at a local hospital after an encounter with dog feces in Wooster Square Park.

The Saturday incident proves what he has been saying all along.

Both on his website and on signs he puts up in the park, he warns that dog poop can be dangerous; and urges that dog owners pick it up.

We have no disagreement with that.

According to his report in the New Haven Independent, a family on a picnic returned home and noticed their daughter “had a smelly substance under her fingernails … Upon further inspection, the 4-year-old had some of the same substance in her mouth and ears…

“Yep, you guessed it. The substance was dog feces. They cleaned her up but overnight had to take her to the emergency room because she was vomiting … Upon testing the little girl, they found her stomach swarming with coliform bacteria …”

A good doggie defense lawyer might point out here that, unlikely as it is to have come from another source, there’s no proof that the poop came from a dog. As one slightly less than sensitive commenter on the Ross post says, “there are a lot worse things than dog poop (needles for instance) littering the parks and streets of New Haven – you’re lucky that it was only dog poop and not something worse.”

As another chimed in “the girl could have pricked herself with a heroin needle, suffocated on a used condom or cut herself on broken beer bottles.”

A good doggie defense lawyer might further raise the question in the jury’s mind as to why the family, on top of not noticing their daughter when she was playing in poop, didn’t detect the presence of the substance until their return home.

But that’s not the point, at least not to Andy Ross, who had the misfortune of  bearing the wrath of mom.

On his signs urging dog walkers to pick up the poop, he lists his email address and phone number. The mother, for some reason, called to yell at him.

“At first she blamed me until I pointed out that I am the one trying to stop this disgusting and total irresponsibility on behalf of dog owners,” he reported. The woman was threatening to sue the city, he said. ”She was piping mad and I do not blame her.”

“I hope that every group that has the ability to get out this horrible story to residents does,” Ross wrote. “Spring is here and children play in the park. Others just enjoy walking around the park with out having to navigate their way through dog feces. This is not just a Wooster Square Park problem; I am sure it is prevalent in other city parks too. This is both a health and quality of life issue we all need to pay attention to.”

Comments on his report are evenly divided between those who agree what happened to the four-year-old was horrendous, and those who point out it could have been worse, and ask why no one in the family noticed when the child was smearing poop on herself.

“Um, I can’t speak for everyone – but I grew up with a dog that poo’d all over the lawn, spent A LOT of time playing on said lawn, and even at 4 I knew not to touch that s#!t … Sounds like questionable parenting to me.”

“People who don’t pick up after their pets are selfish and uncivilized,” said another. “I would recommend to the upset mother that she needs to take the time to teach her child not to eat things off the ground, or at least be more attentive to what her child is doing.”

“Careless dog owners stare at their iPhones while the dog is defecating and completely miss it,” wrote another “… My real question is, why own a beautiful animal if you’re not going to give it your attention? Put down your phone and love your puppy … you’ll feel better.”

I’d agree that both the owner that failed to pick up their dog’s  poop, and the parents of the child who failed to notice their daughter toying with it, share the blame. And I especially like the idea of blaming the iPhone as well.

Many people  tend to get so absorbed in whatever it is they are doing on their phones that they fail to notice both the subtle things and the blatant ones going on around them, whether it’s what a dog might be dropping or what a child might be picking up.

Even though hand-held communication devices may not be to blame for this particular incident, they — or is it our dependence on them? — do seem to take us out of the moment we’re in.

So pick up the poop. Monitor your dog. Watch your children. Enjoy the company of both. And leave the stupid phone at home.

Let a day in the park be a day in the park.

President Obama sure doesn’t know much about Christmas shopping for the dog.

His first mistake? He brings Bo with him to buy Bo’s gifts, thus spoiling any surprise that might have come Christmas morning.

His second one: letting the news media tag along, thereby assuring, in addition to chaos, that — even if Bo somehow didn’t already see the gifts –  he could read about them in the news, or on his favorite blog.

The only saving grace is that the news media hasn’t seemed to have gotten the doggie gifts straight. Some say Obama bought his Portuguese water dog a rubber chew toy and treats, some say a bone and some treats, some say a toy and “another item.”

The only thing they agree on is that Obama purchased two items from a PetSmart in Alexandria yesterday, and that he paid $41 for them.

Which brings us to his third mistake — overpaying. Forty-one dollars, for  what appeared in one photograph to be a rawhide chew and a bag of treats?

As the president made his purchase, Bo played with a  puppy named Cinnamon, according to the Associated Press, and Obama interrupted Bo’s persistent sniffing of the female poodle, saying, “OK, Bo, don’t get too personal.” (Though I think with a name like Cinnamon, you’re asking for it.)

But back to Christmas. Ace and I had decided not to exchange gifts this year. We’d opted to tighten our belts/collars and refrain from the joyous tradition in light of the fact that WE HAVE NO DAMN MONEY.

Instead, as we did while on the road last year, when we gave everyone already broken in gifts, we will celebrate frugally and quietly. It was my mother who suggested the family hold on to their dough and not exchange gifts this season, but she didn’t mean it, and nobody listened to her anyway.

She sent my brother $100 for Christmas. Meanwhile, my brother, unable to find the perfect gift, sent her money for Christmas — also $100 dollars.

It makes one wonder why bother, when the only one making a profit is the post office. Then again, it’s good to help out the needy around Christmas time.

All my immediate relatives will be getting from me this year is the Travels with Ace calendar, which benefits — in addition to the post office, Paypal, and the online printing company that made it — Rolling Dog Farm in New Hampshire.

So far, we’ve sent along $400 to the sanctuary for blind, deaf and disabled animals.

So that fills us with Christmas cheer. As does a handsome check my mother gave me last night as my Christmas present, even though we’re not exchanging them this year.

I am to go out and buy myself something. If I play my cards right (read: Walmart), it should be enough to cover a small gift for her, a pair of “dress pants” for me (just to make her happy), perhaps a winter jacket and the vet bill for Ace’s recent urine test.

(Those tests, like the previous ones on his blood, were all negative, which leads me to suggest that — like those lawyers who promise not to charge you unless they win your case – veterinarians and human doctors should swallow the cost of any tests they order that don’t turn up something. Don’t get bent out of shape, veterinarians, I’m mostly joking. Ace, by the way, continues to be fine.)

With the check from my mother, I think there may even be enough to get Ace a little something — certainly not $41 worth – for Christmas … even though we agreed not to exchange gifts this year.

(Top photo: By Carolyn Kaster / Associated Press)

It’s far cuter than the  dog-riding monkey, but we’re not suggesting they become a halftime show.

A dog in remote north-eastern Bangladesh has become a minor celebrity by breastfeeding a baby monkey back to health.

The monkey, just a few days old, was rescued from angry villagers, who had seized it after a group of monkeys damaged a rice field, the dog’s owner told AFP today.

The news agency reports that scores of people have flocked to Shipar Reza’s house in Bishwanathpur village to witness the addition to the litter of his dog Mintu, who is also mother to seven puppies.

The day after the baby monkey was rescued by from an angry mob, it  joined the other puppies as they fed off  Mintu. Since then, it has also started sleeping with Mintu and other puppies.

(Photo: AFP)