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Last month, an animal control officer in Joliet, Illinois, took a dog home from the township’s animal shelter, fearing it had been wrongly labeled aggressive and was going to euthanized.

He got fired for doing so.

Yesterday township officials, while not offering Bryan Jones his job of 14 years back, decided to let him keep the dog — a three-year-old long-haired Chihuahua.

“Wow cool. I’m just excited now,” said Jones, who has named the dog Chewy. “He’s been doing great. This will be good.”

According to the Herald-News, Jones didn’t think the dog was aggressive, even though a veterinary technician had come to that decision.

On Feb. 27, Jones said, he saw the dog with a “caution: I may bite” sign on its cage. A vet technician said the dog had snapped at a visitor. Jones said he played with the dog that week without incident. Fearing the dog would be euthanized, Jones took it home with him on March 2 without notifying anyone.

On March 5, township Animal Control Director Sarah Gimbel sent Jones a text asking if he had the Chihuahua. He admitted he did. On March 9, Gimbel called Jones and told him to bring the dog back. When told he would be fired if he refused to return the dog, he still declined to do so.

The township will send Jones a letter with his final pay, minus the dog’s adoption fees.

(Photo: Matthew Grotto /Sun-Times Media)

Commissioners in Athens County, Ohio, have voted to end the practice of euthanizing dogs in a gas chamber, and to switch to lethal injection.

The commissioners decided Thursday that the county dog shelter will no longer euthanize with carbon monoxide.

“We’ve been working on this since October and the fact that the commissioners have finally listened to the citizens of Athens County and that our dogs are going to be treated humanely … it’s amazing,” Sarah Robles, co-founder of Athens County Animal Advocates, told WOUB.

A resident of the county, Les Cornwell, offered to pay for the dismantling of the gas chamber.

He even agreed to rebuild it should the county — as it has done before – decides to return to using the gas chamber, the Athens News reported.

The county had attempted to switch to lethal injection earlier, but says rising costs forced it to return to gassing.

A pitbull mix missing part of a rear leg was found last month by the side of some railroad tracks in Baltimore.

Today, she’s up and around, and scheduled to appear at a press conference where her sad but inspiring story will be told.

Baltimore City Animal Control picked the emaciated dog up Feb. 13. The bottom third of her rear leg was missing, leading officers to believe she had been hit by a train.

Staff at the Baltimore Animal Rescue & Care Shelter (BARCS), examined her, and promptly dubbed her Kisses because of her sweet disposition and all the licks she gave them, despite the pain she clearly had to be in.

As bleak as her outlook was, BARCS staff — “seeing her strength and will to live” — dipped into its Franky Fund, created to help homeless animals  in need of immediate medical care, in hopes she could be saved.

BARCS contacted Essex Middle River Veterinary Center, which agreed to take a look at the dog.

BARCS staff assumed Kisses would have the rest of her leg amputated, but Dr.  Joseph Zulty and his staff instead recommended closing the wound and raising funds to get her a prosthetic device.

The surgery was a success and Kisses has been fitted for a prosthetic. A member of the veterinary center staff took her home to provide foster care during her recovery, and BARCS reports that the hospital staff member plans to keep her.

BARCS & Essex Middle River Veterinary Center are holding a press conference this afternoon to tell the story of Kisses.

More information about the Franky Fund can be found at the BARCS website.

(Photo courtesy of BARCS)

Wonder why you’re not seeing any ads for Pedigree dog food during the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show?

Apparently, mutts like Roscoe (above) — especially homeless ones — aren’t viewed by the club as sending the right message, so they’ve cut their ties to long-time sponsor (as in 24 years) Pedigree dog foods.

Apparently, some of Pedigree’s ads — the ones promoting dog adoption, the ones featuring sad-eyed mixed breeds as opposed to well-coiffed, prancing purebreds – were just too hard-hitting and depressing for the kennel club’s tastes.

“We want people to think of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show as a celebration of the dogs in our lives,” David Frei, the club’s director of communications and the host of the show for over two decades, told the Associated Press.

“Our show is a celebration of dogs. We’re not promoting purebreds at the expense of non-purebreds. We celebrate all dogs. When we’re seeing puppies behind bars, it takes away from that. Not just because it’s sad, but it’s not our message … Show me an ad with a dog with a smile; don’t try to shame me.”

Pedigree’s ads, club honchos agreed, were getting too heavy-handed.

Frei said the kennel club had expressed those concerns to Pedigree: “We told them that, and they ignored us.”

Taking a look at the newest series of ads that are part of Pedigree’s continuing efforts to encourage dog adoptions — you can see them here — I don’t see much sadness. They seem more an expression of pride. They come right out and say don’t feel sorry for me. They seem to say the shelter mutt is just as valuable, and will make just as good a pet (and we’d argue maybe even better) than a purebred.

Maybe that’s the kennel club’s problem. Maybe they want television coverage of Westminster — the big show began yesterday at Madison Square Garden — to keep the focus strictly on purebreds, which are, for it, the money makers.

Granted, some of Pedigree’s earlier adoption-oriented ads were pretty bleak in tone; and everybody (attention ASPCA and Humane Society) is getting tired of those ads that, while cool for the first two viewings, continue to tug so blatantly and repeatedly at our heartstrings we now switch the channels instantly when they come on.

Granted, too, the Westminster Dog Show is free to choose any advertisers it wants, and the American Kennel Club does fund research and offer programs that benefit all dogs, purebred or not. And, to keep things in context,  it’s not necessarily dissing mutts with this particular action; it’s dissing downer, guilt-inducing adoption ads.

But it all comes across a little like snobbery; a little like denial, when it comes to the millions of dogs euthanized each year; a little like let’s stay here in our private fantasy world — not open to the unwashed masses, or those who might be of mixed breeds, even though every purebred, except the wolf, is in fact a result of mixing.

Pedigree has been replaced with Nestlé Purina PetCare, whose ads of peppy, happy dogs are more to the kennel club’s liking. The new partnership was announced last spring.

“They’ve shared with us, when we parted ways, that they felt that our advertising was focused too much on the cause of adoption and that wasn’t really a shared vision,” said Melissa Martellotti, a brand communications manager for Mars Petcare US, which makes the Pedigree brands. The kennel club, she said, is “focused on the purebred mission.”

Martellotti said the partnership had been a boon to Pedigree’s adoption initiatives. In 2007, $500,000 in pledges were received after its ads were broadcast over the show’s two days.

Nearly 3.5 million people watched last year’s show, broadcast on the USA Network and CNBC.

Love is in the air at the Baltimore Humane Society.

Otie, a Maine Coon mix, and Geo, a female domestic shorthair, have hit it off so well inside the shelter’s new communal cat area that they will be wed on Valentine’s Day.

Also to be united in wedlock on the special day are two dogs who arrived at the shelter together, and who staff feel no one should tear asunder.

The shelter will require both cats be adopted by the same family. And both dogs, too. They could do that without a marriage license, but it wouldn’t be nearly as romantic.

Otie, about four and a half years old, arrived at the shelter in March, surrendered by owners who were moving away.  Geo, about a year and a half old, arrived the same month after being found wandering.

Both cats, shelter officials say, had shy personalities and were prone to staying in the back of their cages when potential adopters came around, thereby lessening their chances to be adopted.

But recent renovations at the shelter included adding a new communal cat area, where felines could stay in a homelike environment, rather than in cages lining the wall.

Otie and Geo were moved to the communal room with three other cats.

“It wasn’t long before the two found each other and became fast friends,” Wendy Goldbland, director of marketing and public relations for the humane society, wrote in an article for Patch.com:

 ”Now at any given time, you’ll see the two sleeping on the same bed together, grooming together, or lounging on the same windowsill together. They have become inseparable. The two timid felines have even begun coming out of their shells, giving each other the courage to be more outgoing.”

The wedding will take place with all the trimmings. Among those who have donated their services for the event are Cantor Ellen Schwab, who will officiate the ceremony; Flowers & Fancies, which is providing the floral necessities; and a wedding cake provided by the Bark! store in Pikesville.. (You can see a list of all involved on our “Doggie Doings” page.)

Baltimore Humane Society is now offering a “2 Fur 1 Special” on cats, but in the case of  Otie and Geo, a caring member of the community has offered to sponsor their adoption fees if they’re adopted together.

The wedding ceremonies are just one of ways Baltimore Humane Society is celebrating Valentines day.

It’s also inviting you — as an alternative to that box of chocolates — to give your loved one a gift that keeps on giving by becoming a Homeless Pet Sponsor. You have your choice of sponsoring, in the name of your loved one, a dog, cat, or rabbit. With each sponsorship you receive a photo, thank you note, and your name displayed on the animal’s space for the time period you select. Rabbit sponsorships are $20a week or $80 a month, cats are $25 a week or $100 a month. Dogs are $50 a week or $200 a month. 

And if you’ve still got love to spare, it suggests checking out the shelter’s Lonely Hearts Club, whose members are the shelter’s longest-term residents. Throughout February, those who take home a member of the club get half off the adoption fee, and three free personal training sessions.

(Photos by Mary Swift)

On the day after her abuser was sentenced to three years in prison, a tan pit bull named Michelle has been put up for adoption by the Baltimore Humane Society.

Michelle is the first of what’s known as the “Pit 6” to be cleared for adoption. She was among a group of dogs seized from Larry Alston when he was arrested at a home in the Woodlawn area on charges of animal cruelty and mutilation.

Baltimore County police said there was evidence the dogs had been used for fighting.

Humane Society officials don’t know if Michelle was used in dog fights, but she was apparently used to produced litters of fighters while Alston was living in South Carolina.

She has scars on her nose and above her left eye, and marks on both of her front legs suspected to have been left by the metal grips of a device used to hold her still for forced breeding.

Alston, 37, was charged with 22 counts of violating various animal cruelty laws, including charges of mutilating the animals.

On Monday, he was sentenced in Baltimore County Circuit Court to three years in prison for animal cruelty.

Michelle and Alston’s other surviving dogs spent nearly two years in the Baltimore County animal shelter, as Alston’s criminal case dragged on. They were released late last year to animal advocates, and eventually taken in by the shelter to be rehabilitated.

The Humane Society is still working to rehabilitate and socialize the other dogs, Shelley, Meme, Tippy, Meris and Bridgett.

Michelle is 4 1/2 years old, and shelter officials want to see her go to a home without other dogs, and without young children.

A humane society press release describes her this way:

“Michelle is a petite Staffordshire with a beautiful smile when she greets you at the front of her kennel. The “Pit 6,” five females and one male, were found by the police locked in undersized cages. They are believed to have been used as bait dogs. Bait dogs are typically less tough than others and used as practice targets for dogs training to fight. The “Pit 6” were all emaciated with multiple burn and bite scars. They also showed signs of overbreeding – in other words they were repeatedly raped. In dogfighting rings it is not unusual for bait dogs to endure severe pain. Frequently they are wounded, drowned, electrocuted, slammed to the ground, shot, or left to die a slow and painful death from their open wounds.”

The humane society added, “It’s always cause for celebration when an abused dog gets a second chance at a good life, but in the case of the Pit 6 it’s a landmark. That’s because animals held as evidence in severe animal abuse and dog fighting cases are typically euthanized once the case is complete.”

In the case of the Pit 6, animal rescue advocates and Baltimore Humane Society were able to convince the Baltimore County Attorney, State’s Attorney, and Baltimore County Animal Control that the dogs deserved a second chance.

“Michelle demonstrates that even dogs who come from such violent, abusive backgrounds can become loving family pets. Baltimore Humane Society hopes she and the remaining Pit 6 will be used as an example for dog fighting and other animal abuse cases across the nation.”

For more information about Michelle and other dogs at the Baltimore Humane Society, visit www.bmorehumane.org or call 410-833-8848.

(Photo by Mary Swift, Mary Swift Photography)

Former state senator Tom Hayden urged California Gov. Jerry Brown not to repeal a state law that requires shelters to keep dogs and cats six days before euthanizing them.

Hayden posted a video online urging Gov. Brown – an avowed dog lover who features his Pembroke Welsh Corgi, Sutter, on the official governor’s website – to take a look at his own dog before repealing the legislation.

“Governor, I see you’re a dog owner. I can tell from the publicity that you love that dog, your wife loves that dog,” said Hayden, who wrote the 1998 bill while he was in the senate.  ”So stop and think: Thousands of dogs and cats are put to death needlessly every year … I urge you to look at your dog before you allow this bill that protects animals to die.”

The law lengthened the time animal shelters must hold stray animals before euthanizing them, generally from three days to six days. Its edicts were suspended by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2009.

The shelter law is one of about 30 local government mandates Gov. Brown is proposing to repeal next fiscal year to save money, according to the Sacramento Bee.

The state estimates it would save about $46 million from the shelter mandate alone.

Cats ended up in animal shelters in the United States less often and were euthanized less often in 2011, according to a report by PetHealth, Inc., a company that aggregates data from animal welfare organizations.

The report, to be published annually, noted a 6% decline over 2010 in overall cat intakes, including a 5 percent decline in owner surrenders and a 9 percent decline in strays.

Euthanasia of cats declined 11 percent in 2011.

For dogs, the report notes little change in 2010′s intake and surrender numbers. Dog adoptions increased 2 percent, while euthanasia of dogs declined 3 percent over the same period.

The 2011 year-end report aggregates data from 795 animal welfare organizations. Findings were based on 1,537,961 intakes and 1,508,754 outcomes for dogs and cats that entered or left animal welfare organizations in 2011.

“We are very excited to be able to offer the first annualized PetPoint Report to our network and the interested public,” Brad Grucelski, a company vice president, said in a press release. “From this larger pool of aggregate data we can see beyond monthly fluctuations in intake and outcome types and measure the widespread impact of animal welfare efforts in the United States.

“Based on the information disclosed here, 2011 was a good year for animal welfare,” he said, “and all key indicators point to continued success in 2012.”

It was five years ago when strange things started happening at the Battersea Dogs & Cats Home.

Somehow, the same group of dogs were escaping from their pens at the shelter at night and proceeding to raid the food area, where they ate, played and partied all night long.

The shelter at first suspected staff wasn’t propertly closing the gates. Then they thought maybe it was a practical joke.

Finally, to find the answer, they installed three cameras. The first couple of nights, nothing happened, but then the cameras caught a greyhound mix named Red in the act — first freeing himself, then freeing his friends from their cages.

In Great Britain and Ireland, they call the mixed breed “lurchers,” and they’re known for their stealth and cunning.

Red certainly fit that bill — and better yet, shortly after shelter staff brought an end to the late night parties, Red got adopted.

In yesterday’s clip from the award-winning documentary “100,000” we met a man named Anibal who — though virtually homeless himself — struggles to feed some of the stray dogs that populate the town of Guayama in Puerto Rico.

In today’s, we meet another man named Anibal, this one a shelter worker who sincerely believes he is doing dogs a favor, too – by killing them.

He lethally injects about 100 a day; sometimes the sick or aggressive ones, sometimes, when there are no more empty kennels,  the healthy ones. At Puerto Rico’s other shelters — and there are only a handful — the same holds true.

Across the territory, about 500 dogs are euthanized a day — 92 percent of those that enter shelter, according to the documentary.

All this week on ohmidog! we’ve been featuring the documentary, which looks at dog overpopulation in Puerto Rico and some of the people and organizations — such as Island Dog — that are working to solve the crisis.

“100,000,” directed by Juan Agustin Marquez, depicts the bleak existence stray dogs face on the beaches and streets of Puerto Rico, where they are commonly abandoned and abused and often die slow, cruel deaths.

“That’s why I prefer euthanasia before these animals end up like they really end up,” Anibal Rodriguez explains as he goes about his duties, hoisting another dog from a kennel to be injected. “If this animal hadn’t been picked up … this animal would have died in agony on the streets.”

As he sees it, he’s preventing suffering.

“When I first started working, it was hard. As a human being, one has feelings. I have seen so many abuses cases that I prefer that it’s done through small lethal injection rather than a dog getting brutally killed by a person…

“It’s a job that has to be done.”

(Tomorrow: Director Juan Agustin Marquez accepts an Emmy award, and asks Puerto Ricans to take a pledge)