ohmidog!

Earl Simmons, better know as rapper DMX, faces at least 90 days in jail after pleading guilty on Tuesday to drug, theft and animal cruelty charges, Arizona prosecutors said.

The Baltimore-born Simmons, 38, pleaded to three felony charges and one misdemeanor count in Maricopa County Superior Court under a deal to settle three criminal cases against him. He also agreed not to own any animals or posses firearms.

His sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 30.

“I am pleased that this defendant will be held accountable for both his drug and animal cruelty offenses,” said County Attorney Andrew Thomas, in a statement.

The rapper turned actor has been battling legal woes during the past year in Arizona, according to Reuters. In May, he was arrested on drug and animal cruelty charges after sheriff’s deputies raided his home in Phoenix. Authorities found dog carcasses and malnourished pit bulls at the residence.

(Photo: DMX’s album “Year of the Dog… Again”)

The Portland Oregonian, in a Sunday editorial prompted by several recent dog attacks, called for laws classifying all pit bulls as “potentially dangerous.”

“We don’t favor a total ban on pit bulls: Some have good dispositions and can be wonderful animals if well-trained. However, we do think Oregon should reconsider breed-specific laws, rather than treating pit bulls as if they were puppies,” the editorial said.

Under the current Multnomah County ordinance, any dog can be classified as “potentially dangerous,” but only based on its behavior. Owners whose dogs are classified as “potentially dangerous” can be required to take extra steps to protect the public, such as getting liability insurance and attending obedience school.

The newspaper called for pit bulls to be automatically classified as potentially dangerous, then allowing owners to take steps to get their dogs declassified through the already established procedures.

In other words, if you’re a pit bull, or possibly a Rottweiler, you’re guilty until proven innocent.

The editorial cites misleading figures – then makes the same knee-jerk conclusion a lot of jurisidictions have been making.

Fortunately, the paper’s pet blogger sees it differently and provided some balance, and more than a few online commenters (at the bottom of the article) are pointing out the fallacy of breed-specific legislation.

The city council in Monroe, Washington – heeding the call of many concerned dog owners –  has opted to avoid targeting pit bulls, Akitas and other breeds for now, and has passed a temporary dangerous dog ordinance that focuses on a dog’s record rather than its bloodlines.

The interim ordinance gives the council extra time to research recommendations for dangerous dog legislation that have been sent to the council from dozens of agencies and dog organizations, said City Councilman Mitch Ruth, who opposed the breed-specific language, according to the Herald in Everett, Wash.

“We’re trying to find an ordinance that gives adequate teeth for enforcement,” he said. “We want to ensure public safety without using breed-specific language.”

The City Council began considering stricter regulations on dogs after people living in a Chain Lake neighborhood demanded the city do something about dogs involved in several incidents.

Monroe, like most area cities, uses a two-strike approach when dogs become aggressive. Dogs earn the label of potentially dangerous if they bite or act aggressively once. If a second incident happens, the dogs are registered as dangerous.

The council considered a proposal that called for the first warning to be skipped in cases involving about a dozen breeds, but that proved unpopular with many dog owners.

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.

Pit bulls rescued from Michael Vick’s dogfighting operation in Virginia are now gracing the labels of wine bottled by a Southern California winery.

Georgia, Handsome Dan, Curly and other pit bulls rescued from the ring and sent to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, are featured on a line of boutique red wines from Carivintas Winery, a company that combines wine-selling with philanthropy.

The Vicktory Dogs Wine Collection features colorful portraits of 22 dogs confiscated from Vick’s Bad Newz Kennels that now live at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in southern Utah.

Each bottle includes a portrait of one of the dogs on the label. On the back, instead of a description of the wine, there’s a brief story about each four-legged friend, according to an Associated Press story.

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.”

Here’s a clip from Dogtown, the National Geographic Channel series that will begin its second season Friday (Sept. 5 at 9 p.m.) with a special two hour episode, “Saving the Michael Vick Dogs.”

Viewers get to follow the recoveries of four of the most challenging dogs seized from the former Atlanta Falcon quarterback’s Virginia dogfighting ring — Cherry, Meryl, Denzel and Georgia — as experts at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary work to help them overcome their violent pasts.

Dogtown is part of the 33,000-acre animal sanctuary in southern Utah. Best Friends took in 22 of the 47 dogs seized from Vick — the dogs that were viewed as the least likely to be able to be rehabilitated.

Dogtown’s philosophy — “There’s no such thing as a bad dog” — seems to have worked with Vick’s dogs. Even Meryl, who was ordered by the court to stay at Dogtown permanently, has gained new social skills and confidence.

The sanctuary hosts hundreds of dogs, along with cats, horses, rabbits, goats and other farm animals — as many as 1,500 at one time. A staff of about 60 oversses them, taking care of the medical needs, training and rehabilitation, with the hope that as many as possible will be placed with new owners.

For those that don’t make that transition, Best Friends continues to care for them for the rest of their lives.

After focusing on the Vick dogs, the National Geographic program this season will look at some of the other guests at Dogtown — including a hound named Wylee who was hit by a car and lost the use of his front legs; a golden retriever with a learning disability, a border collie with dislocated hip, and a Weimaraner paralyzed with anxiety.

Here’s the conclusion the Watsonville City Council reached Tuesday, when they pooh-pooed the idea of enacting regulations against specific breeds of dogs:

Dogs aren’t the problem. People are.

Instead, the council directed staff to stiffen existing rules, develop an educational outreach program and explore having city or civil court authorities oversee hearings about vicious dogs.

The city began looking into breed specific legislation after two pit bulls escaped from a yard in June, frightening neighbors and killing five cats. Pit bulls also were involved in two other conflicts in 2007.

“In many cases it’s not the dog, it’s the owner,” said Councilman Manuel Bersamin. “Sometimes teens get pit bulls to add to their sense of manliness. I don’t know if they’re good owners. … We only find out when there’s an attack.”

Several people spoke out against adopting specific regulations for pit bulls, Rottweilers or other large breeds, according to a San Jose Mercury News report.

City Finance Director Marc Pimental, who helped prepare the report for the council, said while targeting breeds was an option, he didn’t recommend it. Cities that have adopted such legislation have found themselves fighting court battles.

Christine Allen, a local member of San Francisco-based Bad Rap, a pit bull rescue group, praised the city for looking at options other than breed restrictions.

A lot of times it is the owner,” she said. “A lot of these owners don’t know they can do it better. They don’t know how. They don’t have the resources.”

Since 1999, BAD RAP has been working to rehabilitate pit bulls and their image – including some of those seized from Michael Vick’s Virginia estate/dogfighting ring.

While Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Utah took in the toughest cases — including the vicious beast pictured above — BAD RAP took in 13 of the Vick dogs, and so far homes have been found for ten of them, according to a profile of the group in last week’s Los Angeles Times.

The Vick dogs are among more than 400 pit bulls BAD RAP founders Tim Racer and Donna Reynolds have rescued since they started picking up strays in Chicago on winter nights.

After relocating to Oakland, the two commercial artists focused their rescue efforts on pits and formed Bay Area Doglovers Responsible About Pit Bulls, or BAD RAP, to help reverse the dogs’ undeserved image.

“I give BAD RAP a lot of credit for what was accomplished with the Vick dogs,” said Rebecca Huss, a Valparaiso University law professor who was appointed by federal prosecutors to be guardian of the Vick dogs. “They were there at the forefront.”

Racer and Reynolds point out that a few generations ago pit bulls were considered America’s dog: The dogs helped sell bonds during World War I, were used to advertise RCA record players, and one, Petie, served as the mascot of “The Little Rascals,” the popular children’s TV show.

Now, thanks to misguided breeding and training, the animals are often raised to fight. They are by far the most commonly found breed in shelters nationwide, and hundreds of thousands are euthanized each year.

Only one of the Vick dogs was put down because of its temperament. Twenty-two, deemed either unsocialized or dog-aggressive, were sent to the Best Friends. The rest were placed with other groups, including Baltimore’s Recycled Love.

For a look at some of the other Vick dogs, click here.

(Photo: One of the Vick dogs at Best Friends, courtesy of Best Friends)

OK, now they’ve gone and made me mad.

From the get go, I wasn’t a fan of “b” — the Baltimore Sun’s free and fluffy publication that made its debut this year.

The free part is fine, but the idea of putting out a dumbed-down, celebrity-laden, depth-free daily newspaper, when the regular newspaper is headed in that same direction, b-fuddled me.

On the other hand, it’s generally a pretty b-nign publication — like one of those bugs that makes annoying noises in your ear but doesn’t sting or bite.

Today, though, one of its “content providers” (what we used to call writers) made this remark in reference to the story of the Berwyn Heights mayor whose two dogs were killed by police in a poorly thought out marijuana bust:

“It’s not like these dogs were pit bulls, foaming at the mouth ready to bite off the officers’ legs. They were Labrador Retrievers …”

I think it might b-hoove “b” — and the rest of the news media — to learn a little more about pit bulls and avoid using and reinforcing the easy and erroneous stereotypes.

This is the sort of thing that happens, though, when you take the quick, easy and, above all, cheap approach to producing newspapers.

I’m not sure what the consensus is on “b” in Baltimore, but in my opinion (also free) it adds little to the conversation, and the resources devoted to it are taking away from the fine newspaper Baltimore once had.

Being a former Sun reporter, I don’t want to come across as disgruntled, or for that matter, gruntled, for I am neither. But slurring an entire category of dog raises my hackles.

Maybe, with all the other bumper sticker variations you see around town of the former Baltimore mayor’s lingering (BELIEVE) slogan, it’s time to add one more to the mix: