ohmidog!

You’ll probably see a few familiar faces in this, the newest public service announcement in Baltimore’s “Show Your Soft Side” campaign.

The campaign made its debut in Baltimore last year after several instances of animal abuse in the city, some commited by children. The ads showcase athletes and celebrities cuddling the pets they love and the tagline, “Only a punk would hurt a cat or dog.”

The new announcement is a compilation of some old softies and some new ones — among them Baltimore police officer Dan Waskiewicz, who became part of the campaign this month after saving and adopting a pit bull being teased by children.

Others who have been featured include fighter John Rallo, the Ravens’ Jarret Johnson, Adam Jones of the Orioles and Tommy Lee, legendary rocker and founding member of Motley Crue.

The campaign — a project of the Mayor’s Anti-Animal Abuse Advisory Committee – makes use of billboards around town, and posters hanging in juvenile justice centers and other locations where young people are likely to see them.

Tommy Lee was the first celebrity featured from outside of Baltimore, and was snagged thanks to two connections. Rallo used to be Lee’s bodyguard. And a staff member who has worked on the campaign at 98 Rock, which is helping sponsor it,  also is friends with Lee.

The newest announcement features photography by Leo Howard Lubow, Amanda Safford (Dizzy Grant) Jonesy Edwards (Henry Rollins) and Myriam Santos (Tommy Lee). The video was shot and directed by Janet Mockard.

When Pat Panek’s six-year-old Siberian Husky disappeared in November, she did what most of us would do — made some posters.

But when she put them up on the streets of Acton, Mass., she says, city officials told her she couldn’t do that, and even took them down.

She says the city told her the signs violated its laws.

“It makes me really angry and I don’t understand it,” Panek told WBZ News. ”Frankly, I just can’t wrap my brain around it.”

Panek is pursuing other routes — passing out brochures and  maintaining a Facebook page about her lost dog, but Bridgett, despite 30 reported sightings, still hasn’t been found.

Mike Gowing, the Chairman of the Acton Board of Selectmen, says the town’s laws pertaining to signage — intended to keep the town from being overrun with signs and losing its “historic feel” —  are confusing, and in the process of being rewritten.

How long lost dog signs should be allowed to stay up is one of the matters to be addressed.

“If you’ve lost your dog, how long is it that you should have the ability to put up signs that say, ‘Where’s my dog’? When do you call that?” he asked. In the case of Bridgett, he added, sounding something less than sensitive, “…It was over the winter, this dog’s either been taken in by somebody, or it’s gone.”

The director of Acton’s Planning Department, which enforces the towns signage laws, said Panek was never ordered to take down a sign, only informed that she was responsible for eventually taking them down.

“Welcome home” posters are waiting for Caesar, a dog who disappeared after a car crash last year that killed two members of his family near Tucumcari, New Mexico.

The Quay County Sun in Michigan reports that Caesar — a Maltese who was never located after the crash — recently turned up at the Tucumcari shelter, where a volunteer was able to track down his owner, Monica Benson, after he was scanned for a microchip.

“This has been the best news we have received in a year,”  said Benson, who lost her husband and a daughter in the accident.

Caesar is expected to arrive home in Clio, Michigan, this week, where Benson’s four surviving children have made welcome home posters for him.

The Benson family was traveling westbound on I-40 near Tucumcari on June 15, 2010, when their Chevrolet mini-van overturned, killing Gary Benson, Monica’s husband, and their daughter Emily.

One of the other children,  Benjamin was placed in an intensive care unit.

“While Benjamin was in the ICU, we placed pictures of him and Caesar on the walls.” Monica Benson said. “When he woke up he would point at the pictures and say Caesar.”

(Family photo of Benjamin and Caesar)

The Oregon Department of Agriculture is reminding Oregonians that dogs aren’t welcome in grocery stores unless they’re providing a service to the disabled.

“Of all the complaints we receive … pets in a grocery store — especially dogs — is by far our number one issue,” said officials said in a press release on the DOA website. “We’ve received complaints about dogs urinating in the aisle of a grocery store, jumping up and licking packages of meat, or sniffing food items on the shelf.”

The new public awareness campaign uses dog-shaped posters that will provide definitions of service animal and “tips” for consumers who see pets inside stores. Pamphlets will also be distributed to business owners to help them “know what to ask” and “when to ask” when an animal enters a store.

State officials say it is against state and federal law for live animals to enter establishments selling or preparing food,  unless the animal falls under a specific exemption of the U.S. Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.  The ADA defines a service animal as “any guide dog, signal dog or other animal individually trained to provide assistance to an individual with a disability.”

Citations will be issued to businesses in violation, not animal owners, according to the DOA website.