ohmidog!

A pit bull in Missouri was dragged behind a car, tied to a pole and set on fire.

And if that weren’t horrendous enough, KFVS News called it, “a case of alleged animal cruelty.”

Alleged?

Bollinger County Sheriff Leo McElrath said the charred animal carcass found on County Road 318 near Marble Hill was in such bad shape, investigators almost couldn’t determine it was a dog.

Deputies buried the dog (and with it, I’d guess, the evidence its body might have provided) where they found it.

McElrath said a man came into the department Saturday morning to report seeing a dead animal tied to a post.

“It made my deputies sick to even find this kind of thing,” said McElrath. “It really upset all of us to think someone would treat a dog like that.”

“I was shocked to hear that something of this magnitude happened in Bollinger County,” said Marilyn Neville with the Bollinger County Stray Project. “I just still can’t believe it, I can’t believe it happened in this county.”

Neville urged residents to take extra cautions with their pets on Halloween.

A Facebook page has been set up in the unknown dog’s memory.

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake tomorrow will kick off a campaign urging young people to “Show Your Soft Side” when it comes to cats and dogs.

The campaign was developed to combat the alarming incidence of animal cruelty in Baltimore, with most of the abuse being perpetrated by teens.

“Only a punk would hurt a cat or dog,” is one of its messages.

The campaign is one offshoot of the Mayor’s Anti-Animal Abuse Advisory Commission, which examined ways to change the mindset of young people who often view the maiming and torturing of defenseless dogs and cats as a sign of “toughness” or “manhood.”

The campaign attempts to put forth the message that “being a man,” has  many facets to it, including a “soft side” when it comes to animals.

Because research shows that kids who abuse animals often graduate to even more violent crimes, the campaigns goal is to reach children early.

The campaign will showcase several Baltimore men as role models, when it comes to animals, including Baltimore Oriole Adam Jones, MMA fighter John Rallo, and Baltimore Raven Jarret Johnson (pictured above with his dog, Tucker, in one of the campaign posters).

They will be appearing with their pets on billboards and print ads that make the point that ”only a punk” would hurt a cat or dog.

Pets are invited to the campaign’s launch, at 9:30 a.m. Thursday (Sept. 29) in the plaza outside City Hall, 100 N. Holliday Street.

The campaign is made possible by funding from Eddie’s of Roland Park, Fullmoon Marketing & Events, Kirk Designs, Inc. and Media Works, Ltd.

For more information, visit the campaign’s Facebook page.

The retrial of twin brothers Travers and Tremayne Johnson, accused of setting a pit bull on fire in Baltimore way back in 2009, has been delayed again.

Now it’s scheduled for Nov. 18, which will be nearly two and a half years after the incident.

Attempts to save the young female pit bull, later named Phoenix, were unsuccessful and she died five days later.

Their first trial ended with a hung jury when jurors could not reach a unanimous decision. One juror believed the evidence presented didn’t prove they were guilty.

Prosecutors filed charges against the brothers again, and the new trial was scheduled for May, then postponed until September.

The case led to the creation of an anti-animal abuse task force by then-mayor Sheila Dixon. That task force has since become a city commission.

Andrew David Thompson, the Michigan State University student accused of slaying 13 Italian greyhounds, told investigators he killed them “out of anger,” according to court transcripts obtained by the Lansing State Journal.

The 24-year-old osteopathic medicine student, since suspended by the university, said he killed the dogs by throwing them to the ground or against a wall and by grabbing them by the neck and beating them.

“He (said) that he has killed every single one of these dogs except for two,” Ingham County Animal Control Deputy Jodi LeBombard testified at a June 24 hearing in 55th District Court that led to charges.

Thompson is charged with killing 13 dogs since September 2010.

Typically, he’d put a deceased dog in a garbage bag, along with its clothes, collars and other items, LeBombard testified. “He would cry all the way to the Dumpster, and throw it in the Dumpster,” she said.

Thompson faces 10 felony counts of animal killing in 55th District Court in Mason and three additional counts of animal killing in East Lansing’s 54B District Court. The charges are punishable by up to four years in prison.

He is being held at the Ingham County Jail on a $500,000 bond in the East Lansing case and a $100,000 bond in the Mason case.

Thompson faces an additional count of animal neglect because at least one of the dogs survived.

Officials didn’t say where Thompson bought the Italian greyhounds, a small and delicate breed that typically weighs 7 to 14 pounds.

According to the transcripts, Thompson was seeing a psychiatrist, who expressed concern that Thompson might be a suicide risk.

On his Facebook page, Thompson, who has 790 “friends,” says he attended Phoenix Christian High School in Arizona, then the University of Southern California, where his major was biochemistry. He lists his favorite book as The Bible and his interests as snowboarding and reading The Economist.

The investigation began on June 14, when animal control officials received an anonymous complaint that Thompson had been seen with numerous dogs that kept disappearing.

Several days later, investigators searched Thompson’s Okemos apartment and found a severely injured puppy in the closet.

Authorities also found evidence Thompson bought the dogs from outside Michigan and had them transported via airplane in carriers. Thompson previously lived in Goodyear, Ariz.

In a June 22 interview, Thompson told LeBombard he killed the dogs out of frustration or anger, often sparked when they defecated on his floor, urinated in his bed or wouldn’t come to him when he called them.

“And he got frustrated they didn’t want to stay with him,” LeBombard said, according to transcripts. “And that made him upset.”

A Philadelphia man was jailed on animal cruelty charges after allegedly using a chain to severely beat a dog that his stepmother told him to “get rid of.”

Antique Benjamin, 27, of the 2100 block of Dagget Street, was arrested last week on charges of cruelty to animals, disorderly conduct and dog abandonment, The Delaware County Times reported.

The dog, a shepherd-pit bull mix named Skyye, survived.

Witnesses flagged down a Darby police officer last Wednesday and told him they had seen the dog being beaten with a chain until it stopped moving, near Main Street and MacDade Boulevard. The witnesses said that when the suspect walked across MacDade Boulevard trying to leave the dog behind, the dog got up and began following him.

The suspect returned and beat the dog some more, police said.

Officers, while interviewing the witnesses, saw a man with a chain. When they questioned him, officers said, he admitted beating the dog and said he did so because his stepmother told him to “get rid of it.”

The dog was taken to the Delaware County SPCA and treated for head wounds.

“She is very, very sweet. The minute she walked in, she climbed into the lap of one of our staff members,” a spokesperson said. “She is pretty resilient.”

SPCA officials said Skyye was receiving pain medication and is being closely monitored at the shelter. Until she is formally turned over to the SPCA, Skyye is still the property of Benjamin’s stepmother and is not available for adoption.

Benjamin’s preliminary hearing is scheduled this afternoon.

Pennsylvania SPCA Humane Law Enforcement officers are investigating the death of a dog that was found hanging in a tree in the Bridesburg section of Philadelphia.

The dog, whose breed was undetermined, was found by a man walking his dog in a wooded area near the Delaware River Wednesday evening.

“It appears the dog has been hanging there, in my estimation, for a couple of days in the heat. It is starting to decompose,” SCPA Humane officer George Bengal told WPVI, the ABC affiliate in Philadelphia.

The dog also had a stick shoved down its throat.

The area where the dog was found is a popular hangout for teens.

The Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter (BARCS) has received another apparent cat abuse case and is seeking help from the community.

Yesterday, the city’s office of Animal Control picked up a 12-week-old kitten who appeared to have been burned. He was found outside of a residence.

The kitten was taken to BARCS where he was  evaluated by a shelter veterinarian. The kitten’s whiskers and eyebrows are singed off, and the tips of his ears are burned.

The cat also smelled of smoke, had brown discoloration throughout his coat and red spots on several areas of his body.  He is receiving hydrotherapy, pain medication, antibiotics and burn cream. 

The kitten, now named Jonah, was picked up in the 4000 block of Oswego Court.

BARCS asks that anyone with information about the cat contact Baltimore City Animal Control at 410-396-4688.

The kitten is being cared for at BARCS, and contributions to his care and that of other sick and injured animals can be made through BARCS Franky Fund.

You can find more information at www.baltimoreanimalshelter.org.

Police in Mississippi are seeking the person who attached straps around a dog’s legs by making slits in his skin and wrapping them around the bone.

The Humane Society of the United States is offering $2,500 to anyone with information that leads to the abuser’s conviction.

The brown terrier dog was brought to the Humane Society of South Mississippi last Wednesday, May 4, after being found near the intersection of 34th Street and 20th Avenue in Gulfport, according to WLOX.

Photos released by Gulfport Police shows where a child restraint latch was attached to the dog’s legs after being inserted through the skin around the bone. Investigators say the latches appear to be from a child’s car seat.

The male terrier also has scratches and wounds on his face and head, legs and belly.

The dog, who had no microchip or identification, is being cared for at the Humane Society in Gulfport.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Gulfport Police Department Animal Control Division at (228) 868-5959.

(Photos: Gulfport Police Department)

Two western Pennsylvania residents have been charged with animal cruelty in connection with the burning and abandoning of a 1-year-old mixed breed dog named Chance.

Van Tassel

Clarke

Raelynn Van Tassel, 23, and Shannon Clarke, 34, both of Sharon, are accused of keeping the dog in a basement for several days without medical treatment after inflicting what are believed to be chemical burns. Days later, they abandoned him in the streets.

In addition to burns over two-thirds of his body, the dog also was found with three broken teeth and a laceration to its mouth, according to WYTV.

The dog was found by a police officer on April 10 and turned over to the Mercer County Humane Society, which took Chance to a local veterinarian for treatment.

He has since been adopted and is expected to survive.

The Mercer County District Attorney’s office and the humane society conducted the investigation.

Update: The re-trial of brothers Travers and Tremayne Johnson, set to begin Wednesday, has been postponed to July 26.

Twins Travers and Tremayne Johnson were scheduled to be back in court this morning for a second trial on charges of setting a dog named Phoenix on fire two years ago. 

The first trial for the Baltimore brothers ended in a mistrial in February.

The dog was found on fire by a police officer, who used her sweater to put out the flames. Days later, Phoenix died while being treated in Pennsylvania.

The case led to an increased focus on animal abuse in Baltimore and the creation of an Anti-Animal Abuse Taskforce.

In the first trial, a single juror held out against a guilty verdict, resulting in a hung jury.