ohmidog!

A necropsy has shown that Dorado,  the only canine fatality in this year’s Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, died from asphyxiation, smothering in a snow bank after being pulled from the race.

Dorado, 5 years old, was found dead last Friday in Unalakleet, an Inupiat Eskimo village and race checkpoint on the Bering Sea coast. He was being cared for there after dropping from the race due to sore muscles, Reuters reported.

His death was the first canine fatality in the race since 2009, officials said.

The dog belonged to the team of rookie musher Paige Drobny, who continued with the rest of her team to Nome and finished in 34th place.

The necropsy determined the cause of death was asphyxiation from being buried in snow in severe wind conditions, race marshal Mark Nordman said.

Dorado had been left at Unalakleet and was set to be flown back to Anchorage, Nordman said. The animals were left outside, with their condition checked at 3 a.m. on Friday, he said.

“Between that time and daylight, drifting snow covered several dogs and Dorado was found to be deceased,” Nordman said.

The fatality broke a safety streak that race supporters had cited as a defense against race critics, and as evidence of the good veterinary care animals receive during the contest.

Animal rights supporters say competitors push the dogs too hard and subject them to dangerous conditions.

“Our stance on the Iditarod has always been that people who care about dogs should not support the race. It’s a cruel spectacle,” said Ashley Byrne, campaign specialist for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Sixty-six mushers and their dog teams began the 1,000-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, which was won this year by Mitch Seavey.

(Photo: SquidAcres.com)

Police in new York hope a surveillance video will help them find three men who tossed a bag containing a dog and four puppies in a secluded industrial area and then set it on fire.

Just after midnight on Monday, a van stopped on 91st Street near Ditmas Avenue in Canarsie, police said. Three men got out and tossed a large black garbage bag near a trash bin.

Four dogs were later found inside the bag, WABC reported.

“I couldn’t stand to look at it. I don’t even like to talk about it. It was a horrible thing to do to a dog,” said Sammy Omar, a beverage distributor who found the remains. “It was torture. The puppies were all burned up.”

Investigators are not sure if the dog were alive or dead when the bag was dumped and set on fire.

An ASPCA spokesperson says the dogs were taken to Bergh Memorial Animal Hospital in Manhattan for  a necropsy.

Another dog owner has come forward to tell the world his dog died on a United Airlines flight.

“…What I found out is, when you check your pet, you run the exact same risk of them not showing up as you do with your luggage. That’s kind of sobering,” said Michael Jarboe, whose dog, a Neapolitan mastiff named Bam Bam, died during a late August flight.

Jarboe decided to share his story days after model Maggie Rizer blamed United for the death of her two-year-old golden retriever Bea on a flight last month.

“We have been in contact with Mr. Jarboe and are saddened by the loss of his dog, Bam Bam. The safety of the animals we transport is always considered first and foremost when making decisions regarding their routing and carriage,” United said in a statement to NBC News.

Jarboe and his partner flew from Miami to San Francisco with Bam Bam on Aug. 28, with a layover in Houston. The two-and-a-half-year-old dog had flown four times before without any problems, Jarboe said.

Jarboe, who lives in Miami Beach, Fla., said he chose United because of its “PetSafe” program, which promises compartments in the cargo hold are pressurized and climate-controlled.

He said the layover in Houston was about three hours. Temperatures that day rose to 95 degrees.

When they arrived in San Francisco, they were told the dog had died. United paid for a necropsy, which determined the cause of death was acute cardiovascular collapse.

Before his death, Bam Bam had flown four times before — twice on United — without any problems.

United said Bam Bam was transported to a holding area during the layover, but according to Jarboe, employees did not use the climate-controlled vehicle dogs are usually transported in.

The airline has refunded the dog’s fare ($650, each way), and is working with Jarboe on additional compensation.

Between January 2012 and July 2012, 17 pets died and another 17 were injured on commercial airlines, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. In 2011, 35 pets died while flying, but only two of those were on United, which had the lowest number of animal deaths that year.

(Photos: Michael Jarboe)

A crated dog was set on fire Friday night in West Brandywine Township, Pa., , the Chester County SPCA reports.

The dog was the second to be found fatally burned in Chester County in just over three months.

Wagontown Fire Chief Todd Ziegler was driving on Manor Road about 8 p.m. Friday, when he stopped to investigate what looked like a brushfire near Route 340. He discovered the burning body of a dog in a  crate and called his department, which put out the fire.

A necropsy on the dog was planned at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine at the New Bolton Center in Kennett Square, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

On June 9, the charred remains of a Yorkshire terrier mix between 3 and 5 years old was found in the 300 block of Coates Street in Coatesville. The 15- to 20-pound dog had been burned, then placed in a trash bag.

A $5,000 reward has been offered for information leading to an arrest and conviction in that case, Chester County SPCA spokesman Rich Britton said Saturday.

Tips about both attacks can be reported anonymously by calling the SPCA at 610-692-6113, ext. 213, or by sending an e-mail to cruelty@ccspca.org.

A one-time writer for the television series “NYPD Blue” was arrested Saturday in Queens on charges of punching his 4-1/2-pound poodle in the face so hard that she died.

The New York Post described Ted Shuttleworth as “a 230-pound, washed-up TV screenwriter.”

Police said he hit his poodle, Lola, on May 29 because he was angry at the pup.

Later, he took the 5-year-old dog to a veterinarian, who, viewing the death as suspicious, notified the ASPCA.

A necropsy determined, “Lola sustained a traumatic brain injury secondary to the application of blunt force to the right side of her head at the hands of the suspect, her owner,” an ASPCA spokesman said.

Shuttleworth, 51,  had a brief stint writing for “NYPD Blue” and has worked for Steven Spielberg. He’s now an administrative assistant at New York University.

His wife, Isadora Monk Shuttleworth, called Lola’s injuries ”a horrible accident, ” but didn’t elaborate.

Shuttleworth faces up to a year in prison.

(Photo: Facebook)

A woman whose pit bull died after it was stunned with a Taser by a  police officer in Roselle said it wasn’t necessary to use that much force on the animal.

“I want the officer to know that what he did was wrong,” Haley Pekala, 20, told the Chicago Tribune  Tuesday. “There was no need to taser the dog.”

Pekala’s 50-pound dog, named Chooch, died May 8 . Police said officers responding to a report of a dog bite were forced to use a Taser on the animal to subdue it.

Chooch had bitten a relative of her boyfriend at his family home in Roselle.

Roselle police said that after helping the woman to an ambulance, they found  Chooch in the kitchen. Unable to slip a noose around Chooch, they used a Taser on the 2-year-old dog.

After that, officers transported the  dog to a Schaumburg animal hospital, where he died.

“The incident is under investigation,” said Detective Sgt. John Lawson. “The officer has not been disciplined, but any time we use a Taser — whether on human or animal — we conduct an investigation.

“We don’t know for sure why the dog died,” said Lawson. “Part of our training is to learn how to properly use a Taser on an animal.”

Pekala and her boyfriend weren’t home when the bite occured.

She said Chooch and a dog belonging to her boyfriend’s family became agitated when a delivery person rang the doorbell. That might have agitated the two dogs, she said.

“It was a dog dominance thing,” said Pekala, a college student who plans on becoming a veterinarian.

Pekala drove the dog to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to have a necropsy performed. She is awaiting results of that examination before having Chooch cremated.

“My dog, he’s still not resting in peace,” she said.

A dachshund mix who police thought might have been fed LSD by his owners turned out not to have drugs in his system.

The dog was hit by car, and later had to be euthanized.

Necropsy results show Oscar had a broken back, but his body showed no traces of drugs, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

Police in Snellville, Ga., arrested the dog’s owners after complaints that they were running naked through their neighborhood on Oct. 29. Officers said the couple told them they had taken LSD and also given some to their dog, who was missing.

Nicholas Modrich and Jamie Hughes, both 25, are awaiting trial on drug charges.

(Photo: Channel 2 Action News)

The ASPCA has made its first felony arrest of the year — a 265-pound Queens man accused of punching his 8-pound Chihuahua, the New York Post reported.

ASPCA officials say Jerry Melendez, 33, struck his dog, Spotty, hard enough to fracture his skull and cause a hemmorhage to his left eye.

Melendez took the dog to a veterinary clinic, but, being unemployed, was unable to pay for the medical care vets said would be necessary to save him. So Spotty, 5, was euthanized.

Veterinarians notified the ASPCA about the case, and a necropsy determined Spotty died of blunt-force impact.

“It appears he was just frustrated and became angry at his family dog,” ASPCA Assistant Director Joe Pentangelo said of Melendez, who recently lost his job at a pharmacy.

Melendez’ wife, Lillian Vargas, said her husband only yelled at the dog after discovering the couch had been soiled. The dog, she said, jumped off the couch and ran into the leg of the dining-room table. Authorities didn’t buy that account.

Melendez was charged with animal cruelty and faces a maximum two-year sentence and a fine.

Animal control officers in Connecticut are asking for the public’s help in solving the mystery of a dead pit bull found in a trash bag hanging from a tree near a highway.

Authorities say bloody clothing, needles and syringes were also in the bag, found near a highway in the town of Orange on Saturday. It’s not clear how the dog, a 1- to 2-year-old female, died, according to the Register Citizen in Litchfield County.

The pit bull had puncture wounds on its shoulder and officials are looking into whether it was used in dogfighting rings. A necropsy is being conducted at the University of Connecticut.

The resident who found the bag called police about 12:30 p.m. Saturday. Officers took pictures of the bag in the tree and left it with the resident, who buried the dog with the bag and its other contents in his yard, Assistant Animal Control Officer Linda Schaff said.

After being called about the incident, Schaff went to pick up the dog Sunday, which is when the resident disinterred the animal and turned it over to her.

Anyone with information on the dog is asked to call the shelter at 203-389-5991.

 
A truly ugly act took place this morning in a truly beautiful place: A dog was dragged two miles to his death at the Colorado National Monument near Grand Junction.

The dog – a German shepherd, or shepherd-blue heeler mix — was found with a silver and blue rope around its neck by the chief of maintenance at the monument about 4:30 a.m., according to a park press release.

“This was an incredible act of cruelty done to a defenseless animal,” Joan Anzelmo, superintendent of the monument told The Denver Post. “It is a sickening, sickening type of crime. We are leaving no stone unturned.”

In terms of despicability, we’d have to rank it up there with the dog thrown off a bridge in Lithuania — and it’s a reminder, too, that we in America, despite all the do-gooding when it comes to dogs, have a long way to go as well when it comes to protecting animals from the depraved individuals among us.

Anzelmo said tracks left in the snow clearly show the dog initially walked behind the car, then ran and then was dragged when it couldn’t keep up with the vehicle. Once dead, it was untied from the vehicle and dumped.

She said the dog was pulled up one of the steepest hills at the monument, through two inches of snow and multiple switchbacks, and either ran or was dragged as the car climbed 1,000 feet in elevation.

The animal was neutered and showed no signs of previous abuse, she said. A veterinary pathologist from Colorado State University will perform a necropsy on the dog.

Anzelmo said rewards will be offered to apprehend the persons responsible, and that some tips have already come in over a tip line established as part of the investigation:  970-712-2798. Callers may remain anonymous.

“The employees of Colorado National Monument are sickened by this heinous act and are determined to find the person who committed this cruel crime,” the park press release said.

(For subsequent posts and all of our coverage of Buddy, click here.)

(Photos: National Park Service)