ohmidog!

An Iowa woman told police she hung the pit bull she shared with her boyfriend because the dog was old and annoying, and was “going to die soon anyway.”

Sheena Cornwell, a 28-year-old home health aide, hung the 15-year-old pit bull, named Lilly, by her collar and leash from a rafter in the garage, police said.

Cornwell lived in Des Moines with her boyfriend. He told police that she’d been annoyed with Lilly for two months, because the dog paced a lot.

“(Sheena) had complained about the dog before, but she never abused her,” Joshua VanDyke told the Des Moines Register. “She wanted to get rid of her, but she never said anything about doing something violent to her.”

Police reports indicate Lilly was barking in the garage when Cornwell left the room, returning a few minutes later to tell VanDyke, “She’s dead, I killed her.”

Animal control officers removed the dog from the home after police were called. Cornwell was charged with one count of animal torture.

ABC News reported Cornwell could face up to two years in prison and a fine of up to $6,250 if convicted.

(Photo: Des Moines Register)

Closer, the trashy magazine that brought you Kate Middleton’s breasts, is making news again — this time with a story about a 44-year-old California woman who breastfeeds her pug.

The Oct. 20th U.K. edition of Closer features an interview with Terri Graham, a mother of two human children.

Breastfeeding her pug Spider, she says, makes her feel like a better mom.

“Having Spider suckle on my boob means I finally feel complete and a better mother,” said Graham, who was unable to breastfeed her children for reasons unexplained.

Graham said she has been breastfeeding Spider for two years — ever since the dog licked a bottle of breast milk she had pumped for her newborn son. Apparently, Spider liked it so much, she decided to let him start drinking directly from the source.

There’s definitely a boundary line between what’s acceptable and what’s not when it comes to how close we get to our dogs, and how humanly we treate them — and we meant humanly there, not humanely. I don’t assume to be the one who defines that line, but, in my humble view, this crosses it.

Even though we “ooh” and “aww” when we see a female dog take on the feeding responsibilities to newborn animals of other species, most of us will probably “euuwwww” at this example.

The significant difference between those cases and this, of course, is that a nine-year-old pug doesn’t require breast milk to grow, and the surrogate mama dogs in those cases don’t generally seek headlines.

This, in my view, is fairly outrageous, which accounts for the story’s popularity. We seem to have an appetite for the outrageous, and no shortage of media happy to serve it up and let us suckle. A photo of the article about Graham was posted to a Reddit forum devoted to strange news, and it quickly rose to the site’s front page.  It was subsequently regurgitated by The Huffington Post, and given good play by Doghatersunite.com, a website that says it serves “people who hate dog-loving idiots and their Darwin-defying fleabags.”

One has to wonder how the original publication got onto this story:  A phoned-in tip? Peering through a window? Logging into breastfeedingyourdog.com? (Just kidding, there’s no such website.) Or did the subject of the story, sensing the magazine’s zeal for boob coverage, volunteer the information?

All said, while the case of the breastfeeding pug raises some interesting questions, one should probably consider the source — not just tabloid readers, but  especially Spider — and perhaps seek their nourishment elsewhere.

A Chicago area woman has been charged with animal cruelty after biting the family dog, police say.

Analise J. Garner, 19, of Lake in the Hills, returned home drunk over the weekend and bit her family’s 80-pound English bulldog at least three times, officers said.

According to the  Chicago Tribune, she was also charged with domestic battery and underage drinking.

Police were called to her home about 4 a.m. Sunday after neighbors reported loud noises, Sgt. Mike Smith said.

Garner scratched and hit her 37-year-old mother in the face and also bit her on the right hand. Three bite marks were found on the dog, he said.

“The bulldog finally did bite her back in self-defense,” Smith added. “There were no charges against the dog.”

Garner was released Monday from the McHenry County jail after posting bail on $3,000 bond. She is due in court  May 23.

Acquaintances held a memorial service this week for a homeless woman and her dog, both found dead in a wooded area behind a Vallejo, Calif., car dealership on Sunday.

Johanna Dilag and her dog Muggles were given a quiet send-off Tuesday, the Vallejo Times-Herald reports.

“We held a little memorial for her,” said Maria Guevara, founder of Vallejo Together, who knew Dilag and her dog through a program that feeds the homeless. “We said a prayer and read The Rainbow Bridge — a poem about deceased pets reuniting with their owners — for the dog, and we had a moment of silence for her as a soul living on the planet; someone we cared for.”

The 37-year-old woman and her dog, an orange and white mixed breed, had not been seen for several days before their bodies were found.

Vallejo Police Department spokesman Sgt. Jeff Bassett said the deaths remain under investigation, though there were no signs of foul play or suicide at the scene.

Other homeless people in the area said Dilag was fearful and kept to herself, constructing a fort-like structure in the woods out of leaves, sticks and old tents.

Wagner said Dilag was found laying under a blue tarp, pulled up to her chin, and the dog was tied up and laying at her feet.  In recent days, flowers have been left near a dog bowl at what remains of her encampment.

Dilag is believed to have owned a nail shop before she fell on hard times.

Any fool knows there are three things you don’t mess with — hairdressers, women from Alaska, and their dogs.

Apparently, word of that hasn’t spread to black bears.

Brooke Collins, A 22-year-old resident of Juneau, said Wednesday she punched a black bear in the face to save her small dog from being carried off and possibly eaten.

It happened Sunday night when the hairdresser saw a bear clutching her dachshund, Fudge, and biting down on the back of the little dog’s neck, according to MSNBC.

“It had her kind of like when they eat salmon,” Collins said Wednesday. “I was freaking out. I was screaming at it. My dog was screaming. I ran up to it … I just punched it right in the snout and it let go.”

Collins, who takes precautions with her dogs given all the bear sightings around Juneau, said Fudge darted out the door before she could stop her.

Fudge was not seriously hurt in the attack, but Collins said she is keeping her inside for now.

(Photo: By Michael Penn / Juneau Empire)

Police in Jackson, Mississippi, say a woman took aim at a pit bull puppy she says was threatening her children, but killed her husband instead.

According to an Associated Press story, some witnesses told police that the pit bull, named Cocaine, had lunged at a group of children on Friday. Others said the dog was not attacking. In any event, Betty Walker got her gun and fired twice, hitting the dog once in the leg and her husband once in the chest.

Robert Walker, 53, was killed. The pit bull, 8 months old, survived and was taken in by animal control officials.

Jackson police spokeswoman Colendula Green says the death of Walker appears to have been accidental, but that a Hinds County grand jury will decide whether Mrs. Walker should face any charges.

The owners of the dog could face charges as well, police said.

A makeshift memorial was constructed Sunday night in honor of a California woman who was struck by a car and killed after rescuing a dog that had wandered into traffic.

Mara Steves, 48, of Laguna Niguel, had coaxed the dog off the highway and was kneeling with it on the corner when two cars collided nearby, one of which went off the road and struck her.

Friends and family decorated the corner with flowers, candles and notes in memory of Steves, a mother of two.

The dog, who wasn’t believed to be the cause of the accident, was not injured and reportedly made its way back home, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Steves was a former PTA president at a local elementary school, was jogging when she saw the dog in the road, a sheriff’s department official said.

A grandmother in Bosnia is claiming she saved the six newborn puppies that a young woman tossed into a fast flowing river — an act that was captured on video and has outraged dog lovers internationally.

The Daily Mail is reporting that Ruza Pavlovic, a 75-year-old woman who lives in Bugojno, Bosnia, says she saw the pups struggling in the river and fished them out.

The Mail article points out that it hasn’t been confirmed that the puppies are the same ones that a woman in a red hooded sweatshirt was videotaped throwing one by one into the river.

The “saved” puppies seem to have a brownish coloring not seen on those in the video. And the “savior” is making it known that she is too poor to provide them with food. “They are healthy and happy,” they quote her as saying. “My problem is that they need at least three litres of milk a day and I live only on my small pension, but I do not have the heart to abandon them.”

Police, the Mail article reports, have tracked down the girl they believe threw the animals into the river and are set to interview her. The name of the girl, also from Bugojno, has not been published to protect her safety.

The video was posted on Facebook, and appeared on YouTube and LiveLeaks, enraging animal lovers at least as much as last year’s video of a man in Lithuania throwing a dog off a bridge.

Another animal rights group – SOS, which is based in Sarajevo – also claimed to have information confirming the location of the girl, who was reportedly filmed by her brother.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has offered a $2,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the young woman.

Meanwhile, several Facebook groups have formed, seeking to bring her to justice as well.

A 68-year-old Danish man was sentenced Monday for rubbing dog feces into the hair of a canine owner who neglected to clean up after her pet.

A 41-year-old woman in Silkeborg told police she was walking home with her dog and a load of groceries when the man confronted her for letting her dog defecate in his garden.

The woman offered to go home, get a bag and clean up the mess, but the man was apparently intent on exacting revenge.

“He was really aggressive. He grabbed the woman by the hair, held on tight to her and rubbed the dog poop all over her head,” a witness told the Copenhagen Post.

The man received 30 days suspended jail time.

A freak accident in San Jose has the city re-examining its dog rules, particularly those governing bicyclists riding with dogs on trails.

A meeting was held Wednesday after the death of Beverly Head, who fell on the popular Los Alamitos Creek trail after her legs became wrapped up in the leash of a Siberian husky running alongside a cyclist.

Head, a 62-year-old phlebotomist, initially remained conscious after the Sept. 16 fall, even speaking with the bicyclist until paramedics came, but she died the next day, the San Jose Mercury News reported.

The bicyclist — who was riding with two Siberian huskies — has not come forward and the Head family is offering a $5,000 reward for his identity. The death has been ruled an accident.

“This is a horribly tragic accident, but we can’t legislate accidents,” said Justin Grosso, a San Jose resident who argued at the meeting that additional rules aren’t necessary. Others favored new city laws addressing the issue.

Suggestions included adding more signs on the trails, separating trails for walkers and bicyclists, and banning leashes more than 6 feet long.

About 125 people attended the meeting, which was convened by San Jose Councilwoman Nancy Pyle. The city’s current laws require that owners keep their dogs “under control” at all times and keep them on leashes of up to 20 feet in city parks.

“We’re here to get ideas from the public so that shared trails don’t become hazardous, and we can find ways to coexist,” she said.