ohmidog!

Dogs Against Romney has sniffed out another connection between Mitt Romney and animal cruelty: An upcoming fundraiser for the apparent Republican nominee for president is being hosted by a man once arrested in connection with the barbecuing of a dog.

It was more than 50 years ago, and the charges were dropped, but Fred Malek, who’d go on to become the president of Marriott Hotels and former finance committee co-chair of John McCain’s presidential bid, was in the crowd when five men were arrested after authorities found a dead dog, skinned, gutted and barbecued on a spit in a park in Peoria, Ill.

Charges of cruelty to animals were later dismissed against Malek and three other men after Andrew P. O’Meara testified that he alone had struck and killed the dog with a 2-by-4, skinned the animal and tried to cook it. O’Meara said he was trying to show Malek and the others how to live off the land.

In a 2006 Washington Post story, Malek explained that he and O’Meara , recently having graduated from West Point, went to Peoria in the summer of 1959 to visit friends at Bradley University. The whole group got drunk and O’Meara had killed the dog. Malek said he was not a participant in the killing or the cooking.

Malek , on Monday, will be hosting a lavish fundraiser for Romney, who more than 25 years ago strapped a crate containing the family Irish setter, Seamus, to the roof of his station wagon for a 12 hour ride.

Dogs Against Romney founder Scott Crider is making much of the connection, as is Brad Bannon, spokesman of the Super PAC Mitt is Mean.

“I am surprised Gov. Romney is going to go to this fundraiser and get money from a guy who barbecued a dog, especially with Mitt Romney’s history with dogs,” Bannon said. “It illustrates Romney’s general indifference to people and to animals. He doesn’t care about poor people, he doesn’t care about his dog, he doesn’t care about what Fred Malek does to dogs, he is the classic cold blooded corporate raider. He just doesn’t care.”

Malek worked with the administrations of both Richard Nixon and George H.W. Bush.  While in the Nixon administration, he compiled, at the president’s request, a list of Jews in the federal government. In 1988,  Malek resigned from the Republican National Committee over questions about his earlier role in President Nixon’s push to oust Jews from government positions.

Malek apologized and, as with the case of the cooked dog, denied playing a substantial role in the scheme.

An Arizona woman faces animal cruelty charges after allowing her injured dog to limp around on a bloody stump for nearly a year, police say.

The dog, who had been hit by a car, chewed off part of her own right front leg.

Police contacted Michelle Busse, 22, of Peoria, after someone complained that she had not gotten medical treatment for her dog, Carmela, according to the Phoenix New Times. She faces a felony charge of animal cruelty.

Busse told police that she consulted with a veterinarian after the accident, and was offered a payment plan, but decided against having the dog treated.

Busse turned the dog over to Peoria’s animal control unit. The dog was given veterinary care and later transferred to the Humane Society of Arizona, where a veterinarian amputated the remaining portion of her leg.

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.