ohmidog!

Short-snouted dogs can no longer fly Cathay Pacific.

The airline Monday banned the brachycephalic breeds from air travel because of the risks of breathing problems and overheating.

The ban covers pugs, bulldogs and boxers, and several breeds of cats, including Himalayan, Persian and exotic short-hair cats, CNN’s Business 360 blog reports.

Cathay Pacific’s ban follows similar moves by Singapore Airlines and several American carriers.

The U.S. Department of Transportation released figures last year showing about half of all in flight deaths in the previous five years were short-snouted breeds, with English bulldogs accounting for nearly a quarter of those deaths.

“The ban is to bring Cathay Pacific into line with industry practice because it has been found that there is quite a bit of danger,” said Thomas Lau, Cathay Pacific’s assistant manager of public affairs.

Hong Kong’s Society for the Protection of Animals (SPCA) believes that the ban is an over-reaction.

“… There are cases when air travel is unavoidable, especially when owners need to emigrate,” said Rebecca Ngan, communications manager of SPCA Hong Kong. “If owners cannot send them in the cabin they may have to abandon them or put them to sleep.”

A Phoenix area police department is trying out a new heat-warning system designed to keep police dogs from overheating when left alone in vehicles.

The Peoria Police Department had the system installed in Officer Aaron Brewer’s patrol car about a month ago to keep the department’s lone police dog, Havoc, safe in high desert temperatures.

If a dog is in the vehicle when a handler removes the keys from the ignition, the system will keep the engine running. If the vehicle’s air-conditioning fails while the handler is away and the temperature rises above 90 degrees, a siren will go off.

Once the alarms sounds, the handler has about 3 minutes to get to the vehicle and disarm it before a message is sent to police dispatch, according to the Arizona Republic.  (The system’s alarm is high pitched, to distinguish it from a regular police siren.) If the handler can’t be located, the dispatcher will send officers to the vehicle’s last known location.

Peoria has never had a police dog die from overexposure, but a Chandler K-9 died in August 2007 after his handler forgot to let the dog out of the back of his patrol vehicle, and other jurisdictions have reported deaths as well.

Tellef believes Peoria was the first police department in the country to install this system, which cost about $800.