ohmidog!

Lennox has been put down, the Belfast City Council has confirmed.

The dog whose only crime was resembling a pit bull was euthanized today, after a deadline for legal appeals expired.

His execution – despite 200,000 signatures supporting a reprieve — brings an end to an international effort to save him.

The BBC reports that the city council issued a statement that read:

“Whilst there is an exemption scheme to which dogs of this type (pit-bull terrier type) may be admitted as an alternative to destruction, there were no such measures that could be applied in this case that would address the concerns relating to public safety.”

“The council’s expert described the dog as one of the most unpredictable and dangerous dogs he had come across.”

In June, after two lower courts had already ruled that the dog should be put down, Northern Ireland’s highest court rejected Caroline Barnes’ legal bid to overturn an order calling for the destruction of her pet.

Ms. Barnes insisted that Lennox was not dangerous, and her battle to save Lennox snowballed into an often-heated international campaign to save his life.

One Belfast councillor has received a death threat over Lennox’s proposed destruction, the BBC reported, and workers in Belfast City Council have become the target of a fresh series of intimidating messages.

Lennox was impounded by Belfast City Council’s dog wardens in May of 2010, when a new breed specific law went into effect, banning pit bull types in the UK.

Among those calling for Lennox to be spared were boxer Lennox Lewis, Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson, and television dog training expert Victoria Stillwell, who had offered to have Lennox re-homed in America where he would not be in contact with the public.

Stillwell said she was “absolutely devastated” that Lennox had been put down. “I hoped Belfast City Council would realize that there were alternatives that provided a sanctuary for Lennox in the USA where he would be safe but they did not listen,” she said.

Stillwell said requests that the family be allowed to visit the dog one last time before he was put down were declined — as were requests to allow the family see the dog after he was euthanized.

 
Are dogs and their humans so entwined that they tend to take after one another in appearance?

The question — one drawing increasing scrutiny from scientists — was asked, but not really answered, in a piece in the the Health section of yesterday’s New York Times.

In 2004, researchers in San Diego found that people were able to correctly match pictures of dog owners with their pets more often than not, but only when the dogs were purebreds. Similarities in facial expressions played a big role in the choices.

 The same year, a psychologist at the University of South Carolina challenged the findings in a separate study, but the San Diego researchers countered with a reanalysis that confirmed their initial findings.

Earlier this year, a scientist in England conducted a study in which 70 subjects were asked to match pictures of 41 dog owners to one of several breeds. They were able to match successfully more than half the time.

As with the San Diego study, the subjects later said they matched mostly by looking for personality traits that they believed the dogs and their owners shared.

What’s not known is whether that’s because dog and owner tend to take on a similar appearance (my personal theory), or because people look for certain traits or predispositions that might match their own when choosing a dog.

(Photo: courtesy of afunnystuff.com)

The votes have been counted, and the results have been announced: The winners of The “My Dog Looks Like Obama or McCain” Dog-Look-Alike Photo Contest are Amore Francine and Ginny Doll.

 
The Obama Look-Alike winner, Amore Francine, is a 52-pound boxer, prone to tilting her head, from Mt. Clemens, MI. The McCain Look-Alike winner, Ginny Doll of Rochester Hills, MI, is a 7-pound Maltese with well-groomed white hair, and what contest organizers called a “relatable, friendly face.”

The winning photos, along with more information about each dog and the contest, are available at Rover411.com, a website that celebrates dogs and their owners.

The dogs were chosen from ten finalists in an online contest. Each week, one dog from each category with the lowest votes was eliminated. Over 4000 votes were received.

All this brings to mind my own comparison of presidential candidates and dog breeds, which appeared on my old Baltimore Sun “Mutts” blog.

For Obama, I chose this one …