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UPDATE: The Wake County SPCA video is back — in a fashion. Find details here.

Wouldn’t you just know it: The Wake County SPCA’s inspiring music video — lip-synched to Abba’s “Take a Chance on Me” — has been taken down, apparently after threats by the giant music company that holds the rights to the song.

The video, in which staff and volunteers dance around the shelter encouraging the adoption of homeless pets, is now a blank spot, both here at ohmidog! and on YouTube.

The following message is displayed where the video once was.

“This video contains content from UMG, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds.”

UMG stands for Universal Music Group, a global corporate giant and the world’s largest music content company. 

Another message adds, “Sorry folks. We are working to convince them of video’s educational content and promo value.”

We could all boycott Universal Music for being such sticks in the mud, for putting their turf concerns and profits above saving the lives of dogs, but that would mean no:

Akon, Erykah Badu, Justin Bieber, Black Eyed Peas, Mary J. Blige, Bon Jovi,  Mariah Carey, Sheryl Crow, Dr. Dre, Eminem, Melissa Etheridge,  Fergie, 50 Cent, Nelly Furtado, Vince Gill, Godsmack, India.Arie, Lady Gaga, Lil Wayne, Jennifer Lopez, Ludacris, Maroon 5, Nicky Minaj, Rihanna,  Gwen Stefani, Sting, George Strait, Shania Twain, Stevie Wonder, and Kanye West — just to name a few.

I could handle that, particularly the Justin Bieber part.

How ridiculously greedy. How uncivically minded. How, in a word, bullying — why else would the company feel the need to flex its muscles at a non-profit organizatiion trying to save the lives of dogs.

We hope the SPCA can work things out and get the video back online.

They seem to be taking the matter in stride, and not calling UMG a bunch of greedy, selfish, joy-smashing pigs — that’s just me that’s doing that.

The Wake County SPCA website offers this explanation:

“Sorry about this folks, we got a very cordial email from the folks in Sweden that we are using this commercially (as opposed to non-commercially). So while we try to convince them of its educational content and value and that we will single-handedly bring ABBA back to the top of the US pop charts, please enjoy another SPCA of Wake County video.”

Visitors to the website are taken instead to another SPCA video featuring scenes from the shelter and songs by Sara McLachlan and The Beatles.

A golf course superintendent in Bucks County, Pa., has been charged with shooting his American bulldog 32 times behind a building at the Doylestown Country Club.

Paul Bevan-Xenelis, 39, of Quakertown, could spend up to five years in jail and pay as much as $10,000 in fines if convicted of charges of cruelty to animals and owning an unlicensed dog, Phillyburbs.com reported.

“To shoot a dog that many times and leave it, to me, that’s just shocking,” said Stephen White, Doylestown Township police chief. “It’s unspeakable cruelty.”

Doylestown Country Club president Joseph Paul said in a statement last week that club leaders were “extremely disturbed” by Bevan-Xenelis’ alleged actions, and that he has been fired.

The dog, named Kane, was found tied to a fence near the maintenance shed at the country club on July 24. The dog, about 10 years old, was alive, but “in distress” when police arrived.

Police said Bevan-Xenelis tied the dog to the fence the night of July 23 after it bit a co-worker. The next day, he returned to the country club and shot the dog with a pellet gun, police said.

The dog was taken to the Bucks County SPCA, where he was euthanized, according to Anne Irwin, the agency’s director.

Bevan-Xenelis allegedly told police he shot the dog only once with a .22-caliber pellet gun, but the SPCA removed eight, .22-caliber pellets from Kane’s body.

Police said an SPCA examination of Kane’s remains showed the dog had been shot no fewer than 32 times.

Bevan-Xenelis had Kane for six months and told police he adopted the dog from a rescue in the Philadelphia area. He said he kept the dog at work because he didn’t feel safe keeping him at home.

Due to extreme heat, the Maryland SPCA has postponed this evening’s Wine & Wag Happy Hour, rescheduling the event for next Friday, July 29, from 5:30-7:30 p.m.

The event, held at the Maryland SPCA on Falls Road in Baltimore, includes paw painting, bobbing for hot dogs, off-leash play, and beverages, of course.

The theme for the rescheduled even will remain the same — “Barkaritaville” — and tropical attire is welcome.

Tickets can be purchased online for $10 per person in advance or at the gate for $15 per person.

Those who purchased tickets for the July 22 event can use them on July 29.

Short-snouted dogs can no longer fly Cathay Pacific.

The airline Monday banned the brachycephalic breeds from air travel because of the risks of breathing problems and overheating.

The ban covers pugs, bulldogs and boxers, and several breeds of cats, including Himalayan, Persian and exotic short-hair cats, CNN’s Business 360 blog reports.

Cathay Pacific’s ban follows similar moves by Singapore Airlines and several American carriers.

The U.S. Department of Transportation released figures last year showing about half of all in flight deaths in the previous five years were short-snouted breeds, with English bulldogs accounting for nearly a quarter of those deaths.

“The ban is to bring Cathay Pacific into line with industry practice because it has been found that there is quite a bit of danger,” said Thomas Lau, Cathay Pacific’s assistant manager of public affairs.

Hong Kong’s Society for the Protection of Animals (SPCA) believes that the ban is an over-reaction.

“… There are cases when air travel is unavoidable, especially when owners need to emigrate,” said Rebecca Ngan, communications manager of SPCA Hong Kong. “If owners cannot send them in the cabin they may have to abandon them or put them to sleep.”

Piercing kittens is cruel, a panel of Pennsylvania judges has affirmed.

Three judges of the Superior Court upheld a conviction for animal cruelty of a dog groomer who had offered “gothic” kittens for sale on eBay.

An investigation into the pierced kittens began in 2008 when a citizen saw the animals being offered for $100 each on eBay, inquired about them and reported it to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals of Luzerne County, according to the Times Leader in Wilkes Barre.

A citizen tipped off PETA, as well, which conducted an investigation of its own and passed on information to the SPCA.

Accompanied by state police, SPCA officials visited Pawside Parlor, located at the home of Holly Crawford in Sweet Valley, Pa. They removed three kittens and a cat. While at the home, police also found a dog with pierced ears.

A jury found Crawford guilty of animal cruelty, and last year she was sentenced to six months of home detention and electronic monitoring, followed by probation.

In her appeal, Crawford argued that Pennsylvania’s cruelty statutes were too vague, and pointed out that many accepted veterinary procedures like declawing cats and cutting a dog’s vocal cords could fall under the same category she was being prosecuted under.

The law forbids “acts that maim, mutilate, torture or disfigure the animal.”

This week, the Superior Court panel upheld the lower court’s findings, the New York Times reported.

In a 19-page opinion, Judge Kate Ford Elliott wrote that “metal protruded from the kittens’ small bodies, pierced through their ears and necks, and at least one of these kittens also had an elastic band tied around its tail, an attempt at docking …”

Crawford, who was described in the opinion as being “enthusiastic about piercing,” had admitted to piercing the kittens without anesthetic.

“Appellant’s claims center on her premise that a person of normal intelligence would not know whether piercing a kitten’s ears or banding its tail is maiming, mutilating, torturing or disfiguring an animal.” Judge Elliott wrote.  “We disagree.”

Showing up at a Motel 6 with a dog or two is usually no problem, as we repeatedly confirmed during our travels across America.

Show up with 15 and, as any fool could predict, there’s going to be trouble.

Police in Tewksbury, Mass., say one dog is dead and three more are fighting for their lives as a result of neglect and inhumane treatment at the hands of a 71-year-old Maine woman named Margaret Nickerson-Malpher.

Nickerson-Malpher was arrested at the Motel 6 in Tewksbury Tuesday, where, in addition to four dogs in her room, she had about a dozen more outside in her parked van.

She was scheduled to be arraigned in Lowell District Court today on 17 counts of animal cruelty, Patch.com reported.

Nickerson-Malpher told police she had left her summer residence in Maine Monday night and was driving back home to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, when she stopped at Motel 6 to get some sleep.

She checked into the motel around 7 a.m., apparently bringing some of the 15 dogs with her into her room. The rest remained in her van. Police say motel guests saw her carrying the body of a deceased dog from her van to her room that afternoon.

A motel employee went to her room, and after seeing the deceased dog and other dogs that appeared to be ill, called police.

Police say the officer who responded found inside her room one dead dog and three more in critical condition, due to suspected malnourishment and dehydration.

The surviving animals — 14 dogs and two cats –were taken initially to the Tewksbury Pound,  then transferred to the Massachussetts SPCA facility in Methuen.

Police in Tewksbury said Nickerson-Malpher appeared to have been living in Maine for at least four years, despite the South Dakota plates on her van, and that state police investigating her for animal abuse there were preparing to seize her animals on Wednesday.

According to the Bangor Daily News, Nickerson-Malpher had been charged with animal cruelty in 2006, when 20 dogs and one cat were removed from her home. She was convicted in connection with that and, under the terms of her probation, restricted from owning more than two dogs.

With spring’s thaw, forensic experts will begin exhumation this week of a mass grave in British Coumbia as part of an investigation into the slaughter of 100 sled dogs last year.

Details of the killings last April surfaced in January after sled dog tour operator Robert Fawcett filed a disability claim saying he suffered post-traumatic stress from shooting and slitting the throats of about 100 dogs, under orders from his bosses.

The dogs were dumped – some still alive — in a mass grave north of Whistler.

The British Columbia SPCA announced Sunday it would begin a week-long investigation aimed at finding out whether the dogs were killed inhumanely, said Marcie Moriarty, the society’s animal cruelty investigation manager.

“The scope of this investigation is unprecedented in North America,” Moriarty told The Province. “We owe it to those 100 dogs buried in that grave to ensure that this kind of tragic incident never happens again in B.C.”

Exhuming the dogs wasn’t possible until now because of frozen ground.

Eight forensic experts will take part, including veterinarians, archaeologists and anthropologists from across North America,  many of whom have volunteered their time for the effort, Moriarty said.

After the mass killing was reported, a provincial task force was formed  to review the incident, leading to recommendations for tougher animal cruelty penalties and new regulations that required the sled dog tour industry to establish humane euthanization policies.

Moriarty said all the dogs would be given a respectful and humane burial after the investigation.

Over 5,000 animal lovers and their four-legged friends are expected to attend the Maryland SPCA’s 16^th Annual March for the Animals at Druid Hill Park from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sunday.

Participants, whether they are hiking the 1.5-mile walk-a-thon or checking out vendors and entertainment, will be helping to support homeless animals in the Baltimore area.

For the walk-thon, registration opens at 9 a.m. and starting line ceremonies will take place at 10 a.m. 

The event also features a demonstration by Mid-Atlantic Disc Dogs, pet training tips, an agility course for dogs, low-cost micro-chipping, a “flea-less” market of pet friendly vendors, musical chairs for dogs, and a pet costume contest judged by celebrity guests, food and entertainment.

Prizes will be awarded to the top fundraisers, including a grand prize trip to the Bahamas. Participants will receive a special “doggy bag” that includes treats, corporate giveaways and other gifts. Dog bandanas will be given to those who raise at least $30, and the 2011 March for the Animals t-shirt will be given to walkers who raise at least $40.

About 100 dogs were gunned down execution-style in British Columbia when a company that offers sled dog tours apparently decided that, due to a downturn in business, it could no longer afford to maintain them.

The shocking revelation of the mass killing (the industry prefers the term “culling”) surfaced through the British Columbia Worker’s Compensation Board, where a company employee filed a claim saying that killing the dogs, on April 21 and 23 of last year, caused him post-traumatic stress disorder.

The SPCA in British Columbia has launched an investigation into the incident.

“Culling” – or thinning the “herd”  — is apparently not an uncommon practice among sled dog companies, according to the SPCA, either in the U.S. or Canada, where the sled dog tour industry is largely unregulated.

The Animal Legal Defense Fund is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone engaged in the illegal killing of sled dogs in either country. 

The 100 dogs – used in sled dog tours operated by Outdoor Adventures — were gunned downed while tethered. The employee, acting under the orders of his boss, began shooting dogs as other dogs watched. Some of the dogs panicked and attacked him as he carried out the task, he said.

This Friday (June 25), the Maryland SPCA is celebrating National Take Your Dog To Work Day with a “Wine and Wag” Happy Hour from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Cylburn Arboretum in Baltimore. 

Participants can relax after work — pets at their side — and enjoy light refreshments including hors d’oeuvres, beer and wine.

Activities include “musical sit” with your dog, paw painting, bobbing for hot dogs and a canine pool party.

Guests are also welcome to tour Cylburn Arboretum.

Tickets are $10 per person in advance and $15 at Cylburn. Dogs are admitted free. Only one dog per person is permitted and all dogs must be leashed.

Tickets can be purchased online at mdspca.org. All proceeds benefit the Maryland SPCA.

Additional “Wine and Wag” Happy Hours will be held through the summer, with the next scheduled for July 23 at Cylburn.