ohmidog!

A Florida family’s three-legged pit bull-Lab mix returned from playing in a wooded area near their home Monday with an object in his mouth that turned out to be the corpse of a one-armed infant.

Tonya and Henry McGill, of Milton, say they noticed their dog Coco digging. As Tonya went over to see what Coco had found, the dog — who had her left front leg amputated when she was 10 months old — came back out of the woods and “kind of laid the body at my wife’s feet,” Henry McGill said. “At first she didn’t know what it was because it had dirt on it and everything.”

Once the couple realized it was a human baby, Henry McGill, who had been power-washing the house, immediately dialed 911. He said the baby was naked and missing its left arm.

Santa Rosa County Investigators combed the wooded area where the body was found, WKRG-TV reported. An autopsy has been conducted but the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office is not releasing details at this time.

A Texas lawmaker has asked the state attorney general to issue an opinion on whether local officials have the authority to pass laws banning or regulating specific breeds of dogs.

In a letter to Attorney General Greg Abbott, Republican state Rep. Tony Goolsby requested an opinion to clarify a state law that cities and counties have interpreted as preventing them from targeting breeds.

He wrote that confusion caused by “varying interpretations” of the law has stopped local governments wanting to pursue such measures, according to the Houston Chronicle.

Read more »

A trainer from Best Friends Animal Society in Kanab, Utah will appear on today’s Ellen Degeneres Show with one of the dogs rescued from Michael Vick’s dofighting operation.

John Garcia, from Fredonia, Ariz., will appear with Georgia, one of 22 pit bulls sent to the sanctuary after being rescued from Vick’s dog fighting operation in Virginia, the Salt Lake Tribune reports.

Vick, the former Atlanta Falcons quarterback, was sentenced to 23 months in federal prison for his part in a dogfighting conspiracy. He and three co-defendants raised and trained pit bulls for fighting. Poor-performing dogs were executed.  

Read more »

A family’s pit bull charged at a gun-wielding intruder who broke into an Oklahoma City home, scaring him off, but getting shot three times in the process.

“It is amazing, it’s amazing that he want after that guy, and that I still have a family,” family member Angelic Shoemaker told News9 in Oklahoma City.

The family said their pit bull, D-boy, saved their lives.

Roberta Trawick was sitting on the couch when a man busted in, through the front door. “He came in, pointed a gun at me and said, ‘Get down on the ground’,” Trawick said. D-boy ran in from another room, ready to attack. But before D-boy could get a hold of the intruder, the man started shooting.

“I seen him shoot the dog twice,” Trawick said. “He shot him once in the head and he was still going after him and the guy shot him again.”

D-boy was shot three times, altogether, by the intruder, who then ran away. The family said they didn’t know why the man broke in — or how D-boy survived.

“The vet said if it wasn’t for his hard head he wouldn’t be here,” Trawick said. “He’s got a hard head.”

After the original broadcast aired, pointing out D-boy’s medical bills were already over $1,500, offers of help came in from across the country.

A Sheboygan, Wisconsin woman has been cited for animal neglect after leaving her overweight dog outdoors in single-digit temperatures, where it froze to a sidewalk but survived.

Shelter workers say Jiffy, who remains in their custody, was left in frigid weather last week but the “morbidly obese” (120 pounds) border collie was protected by layers of insulating fat.

Police issued 59-year-old Alice Bigler an ordinance violation for animal neglect. A misdemeanor animal neglect charge could be filed Dec. 22, when Bigler is scheduled to appear in court.

A number for Bigler was disconnected. It wasn’t immediately known whether she had a lawyer, the Associated Press reported.

Meanwhile, also in Sheboygan, police arrested a 37-year-old man Tuesday, who is accused of abandoning a sickly pit bull by leaving it tied to a pole in an alley. A nearby resident saw the dog and called authorities, according to another Associated Press report.

According to police, the dog was extremely underweight and had frostbite on its front paws, front legs and left ear. The dog is expected to recover.

Texas officials have begun making arrests in an investigation into what authorities describe as one of the largest dogfighting rings in the country.

Eight people were arrested and 187 dogs were seized Friday — all part of what was called a sophisticated dogfighting ring involving a network of bettors and fight organizers throughout eastern Texas.

According to the New York Times, 55 people were indicted after an undercover investigation that lasted 17 months. Officials said the network’s dogfights drew crowds of up to 100 people, who placed tens of thousands of dollars in wagers on a single fight.

“This was a large-scale, highly organized operation,” said Lisa Block, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Public Safety.

It was not uncommon for a gambler to put $500 to $1,000 down on the matches, which took place several times a month in secluded parts of Harris County, law enforcement officials said.

Ring members invited only people they knew to the fights, but undercover agents from the state police infiltrated the group to gather evidence and even managed to videotape some of the matches, officials said. The investigation started after troopers received a tip from someone in another state about the fights.

Most of the dogs seized were pit bull mixes.

During raids to seize the animals, state troopers also found firearms, marijuana, cocaine and stolen property, the authorities said. But the indictments charged the defendants only with engaging in dogfights, a felony that carries up to two years in prison, or misdemeanor charges of being a spectator at a dogfight, which carries up to a year in jail, the Times reported.

I was driving down Century Boulevard when I spotted them — a homeless man, judging from the Vons grocery cart he was pushing down the sidewalk, and a three-legged pit bull in a service dog vest, hobbling alongside, her leash tied to the cart.

I made a u-turn, saw him walking down Hawthorne and, after one more u-turn, pulled my rental car alongside the man and dog as they turned down 101st Street.

His name is Mike Reed, and his dog’s name is Topaz, and as we sat on the sidewalk and talked — next to his bottle of King Cobra malt liquor in a black plastic bag — Topaz, weary from a just completed walk, snoozed on the concrete, wearing a service dog vest that said “Don’t Touch Me, I’m Working.”

Reed has had Topaz for five years. He takes care of her. She takes care of him, helping him cope with life on the streets — the kind of life that can turn violent at any second, and on Aug. 31 did just that.

On that day, he and Topaz found themselves standing innocently in the middle of a confrontation between another homeless man and officers from the Inglewood Police Department.

Reed had just met the man minutes earlier — after the man entered a store and an employee noticed what appeared to be a gun in his pants. Police were called, and tracked the man down. Not knowing whether Reed was an accomplice, officers put Reed in a squad car. Topaz remained on the sidewalk, leashed to Reed’s grocery cart.

As Reed decribes it, police told the suspect to put his hands in the air. The suspect raised and lowered his hands two times. The third time he lowered them, he reached for what police thought was a gun, and a barrage of shots followed.

The gun turned out to be a plastic toy.

Four or five shots struck Topaz, one shattering her hip bone.

Read more »

Canadians are a bland and slow-witted people, prone to swilling beer, wearing plaid and playing ice hockey.

Eh?

Of course that’s not true, but then neither is this: Pit bulls are dangerous and unpredictable dogs that have the potential to attack without warning.

That’s what the Ontario Court of Appeal said Friday in a decision upholding the province’s ban on pit bulls, enacted in 2005. It prohibits the breeding, sale and ownership of pit bull and requires they be muzzled when in public.

The Appeal Court ruled Friday that the ban on the breed does not violate any constitutional rights.

“The total ban on pit bulls is not ‘arbitrary’ or ‘grossly disproportionate’ in light of the evidence that pit bulls have a tendency to be unpredictable and that even apparently docile pit bulls may attack without warning or provocation,” the judges said in their decision Friday.

Then they all put on their tuques, went to an ice hockey game and drank Molsons. Not really. The point is, you’d think a high court in a country so sensitive to negative stereotyping would give a little more thought and study to an issue rather just relying on stereotypes — namely the bogus one that all pit bulls are prone to unprovoked violence.

Yes, there are violent pit bulls (generally the fault of their owner) — just as there are nasty poodles and slow-witted Canadians, but blanket indictments based on perception aren’t progress. They’re the opposite — a step backwards. They get us nowhere. 

Lawyer Clayton Ruby, who challenged the law, called it a “sad day” in Ontario. “Kind, loving, gentle dogs are being killed across this province for no reason,” he said in a statement, according to the Canadian Press.

“The provincial government should focus their efforts and resources on identifying truly dangerous dogs rather than apprehending and killing dogs that pose no threat at all,” he said.

Ruby said he is considering an appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Jean-anne Moors of Banned Aid, a coalition fighting the ban, said the group was “very disappointed” with the ruling.

“I have three so-called pit bull-type dogs who are all legal under the law,” she said. “Everybody’s looking at me as if I’m some kind of criminal when I walk down the streets with my dogs. They have no history of aggression.”

Moors said the law sets a troubling precedent because it’s not just a pit bull issue.

“If a government … can make such an arbitrary decision that a dog is a bad and dangerous dog and seize it under certain circumstances and destroy it … that’s a matter of concern to anybody who has a dog - period.”

Tomorrow is National Pit Bull Awareness Day, and B-More Dog Inc., a Baltimore-based organization  advocating for responsible dog ownership, is urging its members and pit bull owners everywhere to show off the breed’s good side.

The day was created last year by Bless the Bullys, a pit bull rescue and education organization based in Tennessee, in an effort counter the negative publicity surrounding pit bulls

“This event’s goal is to focus on the pit bulls and their owners who aren’t making the news: Responsible, devoted owners that responsibly care for their dogs and do their best to make sure their dogs are good ambassadors for the breed,” B-More Dog officials said in a press release.

“This year, B-More Dog encourages responsible pit bull owners in the Baltimore area to celebrate National Pit Bull Awareness Day,” they said. “Walk your well-behaved dog in your local park or neighborhood. Find out how to certify your dog as a Canine Good Citizen or seek training advice for your rowdy dog. Talk to your local pet store about putting out fliers that explain the myths vs. the facts about pit bulls.”

B-More Dog (short for Baltimore Dog Owners Guild) was formed to promote responsible dog ownership, and to enhance the relationships of dogs and their owners by fostering responsible care and stewardship. It got its start in the fall of 2007 after a proposal was made to pass breed specific legislation in Baltimore County. 

The proposed law, which would have required all pit bull owners to muzzle their dogs and confine them in locked kennels, was not passed — but those who own and love pit bull type dogs took it as a warning.

“Many of us felt that we needed to do more to help the American pit bull terrier regain its status as a valuable working dog and cherished family pet,” the non-profit organization’s website says.

“Pit bulls and their owners are fighting for their rights and reputations right now. Pit bulls face abuse, neglect, torture, and overbreeding by people who do not have the dogs’ best interests at heart; their owners face negative stereotypes and prejudices, simply because they choose to own pit bulls. 

“We hope that through education, mentoring, and outreach, we can help pit bull owners become better ambassadors for our breed and eventually reduce some of the misunderstandings about pit bulls and the people who love them.”

It’s not too early to start thinking about your dog’s Halloween costume — so in the weeks ahead, I’ll be tossing out a couple of ideas.

This first one comes courtesy of Wiggles Dog Wigs, an online purveyor of pooch toupees.

What could be more fitting than to outfit your dog in the fashion of a woman who is being called — when she’s not being called a soccer mom — an “attack dog,” a term for which we have already expressed our disdain.

Or, a less expensive option, simply put lipstick on your pit bull (to use her own description of herself).

This being a presidential election year, candidate costumes will probably be big — and there’s no reason to limit your choices for a dog costume to Sarah Palin. You might want to consider Bark Obama or John McCainine.

Whichever route you go, if a dog wig is called for, keep in mind Ruth Regina, the brain behind Wiggles, is one of the few makers of them.

Regina spent nearly 50 years in movies and TV as a make-up artist and “wig master,” according to her website. Going back to the days of the Jackie Gleason Show, she’s worked on productions ranging from Scarface to Striptease.

She was responsible for make-up work on the set of the Miss Universe Pageant for 14 years, at national political conventions (both Democrat and Republican parties, she points out), and has worked on the faces of such big-time names as Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Heidi Klum, Jennifer Lopez, Judy Garland and Marisa Tomei.

Most recently, Regina has undertaken Wiggles, a new venture that designs and manufactures wigs for dogs.  An 8th generation wig maker, she maintains a wig shop in Bay Harbour Islands, Florida.

(Photo courtesy of Wiggles Dog Wigs)