ohmidog!

Donations and adoption offers have poured in for Freeway, the German shepherd who lost a leg after being dragged down a northern California interstate by a pick-up truck.

Freeway, as he is now known, spent some time Friday afternoon playing quietly and getting used to life on three legs. He was visited by Angie Porter and her 13-year-old son, River, who went to his aid after seeing him being dragged down the highway.

As they followed the truck down Interstate 780, honking their horn, the rope the dog was being pulled by snapped when the pick-up truck exited, slamming the dog into a concrete abutment. Authorities are searching for the truck’s driver.

At Benicia Middle School, where Porter works as a campus supervisor, donation pots were placed around campus to raise money for the dog’s medical care, and more than $2,200 has been raised there alone.

The Humane Society of the North Bay has fielded at least two dozen calls offering to adopt Freeway — including one from an Illinois woman, executive director Peter Wilson told the Vallejo Times-Herald.

Freeway’s sutures will be removed in less than two weeks. On Tuesday, he will be transferred to a foster family, Wilson said. In four to six weeks, the humane society will put the dog up for adoption, likely holding a lottery due to the high degree of interest, Wilson said.

Donations for Freeway will go to the Humane Society’s Maya Fund, created to help animals with medical needs.

Anyone with information about the dog, or the driver that left him behind, can call animal services at 707- 333-6039.

(Photo: Chris Riley / Vallejo Times-Herald)

Steven Clay Romero and his sister were indicted late Monday in connection with the dragging death of Buddy, a stolen German shepherd mix who was pulled by a rope attached to a pick-up truck for miles at Colorado National Monument.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office and the National Park Service announced the indictments today against 37-year-old Romero, of Grand Junction, and his sister, 32-year-old Melissa Marie Lockhart of Fruita, according to the Denver Post.

Romero is already in federal custody and an arrest warrant was issued for Lockhart.

The federal indictment alleges Romero knowingly tortured and needlessly mutilated and killed the dog by dragging it behind a vehicle for three miles at the Colorado National Monument sometime between Dec. 29 and 30.

The indictment says Lockhart knew about the crime between Dec. 30 and 31, but concealed it by making false statements to law enforcement, and failed to report it.

Romero faces one count of aggravated animal cruelty, punishable, if convicted, by up to three years in federal prison and up to a $100,000 fine. Lockhart is additionally charged with stealing Buddy and another dog, and faces up to three years in federal prison and up to a $250,000 fine, if convicted.

The case is in federal court because the crime is alleged to have occurred in a national park.

More than 100,000 signatures gathered via Facebook are to be presented to prosecutors tomorrow, demanding the maximum sentence for Romero and Lockhart, if convicted.

(For our previous posts on Buddy, click here.)

The Denver Post reports that more than 100,000 signatures have been gathered on petitions urging the maximum sentence for the man who is charged with dragging a dog to death at Colorado National Monument.

Gary Sherman said the petitions, signed by animal lovers from the United States and 111 other countries, will be delivered to the courthouse in Grand Junction this week.

The signatures were gathered through a Facebook page called “Demand Justice for Buddy.”

Buddy, a German shepherd mix, was dragged by his neck behind a pick-up truck on Dec. 30. Steven Romero, 37, of Fruita, has been charged with the dog’s killing.

Sherman, of Colorado Springs, plans to deliver the petitions to prosecutors Wednesday before Romero’s scheduled 4 p.m. arraignment hearing in federal court on a charge of aggravated cruelty to animals. The petitions urge that, if convicted, he receive the maximum penalty of three years in a federal prison, a $100,000 fine and one year of probation.

His sister, Melissa Lockhart, is accused of stealing Buddy and another dog. She faces animal-cruelty, felony theft and false-reporting charges and is in jail.

Since the Facebook page was created days after Buddy’s death, 212,029 animal enthusiasts have become members of the site.

(For our previous posts on Buddy, click here.)