Dogs Found Safe after Carjacking of Doggie Day Care Minivan

Several pet parents who’d left their dogs at a Chicago doggie day care facility yesterday could breathe huge sighs of relief this morning. The minivan transporting their dogs home late yesterday afternoon was carjacked at gunpoint, with seven dogs inside it. This morning the van was finally found, with the dogs still inside it, apparently safe and sound.

Around 4 p.m. yesterday, two armed men stole the unmarked Urban Out Sitters’ minivan as the driver was loading up the dogs, according to the Chicago Sun Times. One of the men pointed a gun at a witness who tried to stop them.

“Fifteen years in business and this is probably the most devastating thing I’ve had to deal with,” Joseph Giannini, owner of the doggie day care, told the Sun Times.

Giannini said that because his facility’s name is not on the minivan, he did not think the carjackers intended to steal the dogs.

As temperatures dropped to below zero overnight, Giannini and worried pet parents drove around Chicago, searching for the minivan.

This morning a woman in the River West neighborhood noticed a dog sitting inside a minivan outside her house for more than an hour. Worried about the dog’s safety, she called the police. Officers arrived and found that the license plates matched those of the stolen minivan.

The case is under investigation by the Chicago Police Department. In the meantime, the dogs have been reunited with their happy pet parents.

Tad Tomita, dog dad of Mochi, a 3-year-old Miniature Schnauzer who was in the minivan, told ABC News that when his wife told him yesterday their dog had been stolen, “I couldn’t comprehend what was going on. It’s so surreal.”

Tomita and his wife picked up Mochi this morning from where the minivan was found.

“She was cold but extremely happy to see us,” he told ABC News.

Photos via Facebook, Facebook

Polar Plunge No Place for Pups (VIDEO)

It was bad enough last summer when some pet parents subjected their poor dogs to the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Now an unidentified man in Massachusetts has forced his dog into ice-cold water for a charity “Polar Plunge” — and is facing no animal cruelty charges for doing so.

Saturday’s Polar Plunge event in Wilbraham, Mass., allowed people who made a donation to Special Olympics Massachusetts to jump through a hole in the ice into the freezing-cold Spec Pond. The air temperature Saturday was in the low teens.

Soon after the fundraiser, photos appeared on Facebook of a large, scared-looking yellow Lab being pushed by a man into the pond. Outraged animal lovers left comments blaming Special Olympics Massachusetts for allowing this to happen.

Yesterday the organization released a statement saying it most certainly did not condone the dog’s involuntary participation in its Polar Plunge.

“We are very shocked and disappointed that this happened at what has consistently been a great community event,” the statement said.

But then the Wilbraham Police Department released a rather dismissive statement of its own yesterday on its Facebook page (which is down today “for some modifications,” according to the department’s website). The gist of the statement: The owner said his dog loved swimming in cold water, so what was the problem?

“The owner of the dog is very upset over the situation,” the statement read, according to MassLive.com. “The owner would like everyone to know he has no children and treats his dog as his child. The owner stated that the dog loves the water and at no time was he attempting to hurt the animal. We thank everyone for their concern.”

The statement said police officers and officials from the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MSPCA) observed the dog for a few days after the event, and the dog would be examined by a veterinarian. The dog “appeared to be in perfect health,” the statement said.

MSPCA spokesman Rob Halpin told MassLive.com there will be no criminal investigation into the incident, even though he admitted the agency is “shocked and disgusted” by it.

“It’s obviously not how people are supposed to treat a dog, but it doesn’t constitute a violation of the state’s animal cruelty statute,” Halpin said.

While Wilbraham police insist the owner didn’t force his dog into the water, Chris Richie, marketing and communications manager for Massachusetts Special Olympics Massachusetts, told MassLive.com that witnesses had told him otherwise.

“The dog ran away, but the man fetched him, brought him back to the edge and then pushed him in,” Richie said.

Richie said that in the future, dogs will more clearly be banned from such events because it was “shocking, disturbing and not cool. In no way, shape or form can we have any animals around, near or in the water.”

Today the City of Wilbraham released this video of the incident. Do you think charges should be filed?

Photos via MassLive.com, YouTube

Meet the Beagle: ‘Miss P’ Wins Westminster Best in Show Title

If you ask me, this year’s recipient of the prestigious Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show’s Best in Show title is the cutest winner since Uno, who in 2008 was the first Beagle to ever take the title.

Maybe that’s because 4-year-old Tashtins Lookin for Trouble — aka Peyton — aka Miss P — just happens to be Uno’s grandniece.

Miss P was much more subdued than her vocal great uncle, who had barked and howled at judges seven years ago. Yet Miss P’s handler, Will Alexander, seemed to be exhausted at a news conference after the show, the New York Times reports.

“She’s hungry and I’m overwhelmed,” Alexander told reporters. “She just never let me down. She didn’t make any mistakes,”

Best in Show judge David Merriam appeared to be having a good time with his duties. According to the New York Times, Merriam said he chose Miss P because she “had wonderful type” and a “wonderful head,” and, as she trotted around the show ring at Madison Square Garden, he could imagine “the Beagle in the ring and the Beagle in the field.”

The win was considered a huge upset since Matisse, a Portuguese Water Dog who’s a cousin of the Obama family’s Sunny, was expected by many to take the title. Swagger, an Old English Sheepdog, got the biggest cheers and seemed to be the crowd favorite.

The competitor who got the most media attention was Toy Group winner Rocket, who is co-owned by former headline-maker Patricia Hearst-Shaw.

Miss P was born in Canada and lives in both Milton and Enderby, British Columbia. She has won 19 previous best in dog show titles in the U.S., but this will be her final one. She’s retiring to motherhood.

Uno, who lives in Austin, Texas, and is now almost 10, has never met his grandniece. His dog mom, Caroline Dowell, told the Associated Press that Uno has his own television set, “so I assume he was watching.” Uno is still in great shape, she added. “You can put him in the ring and he’d win tonight.”

To celebrate her victory, Miss P is spending Wednesday appearing on TV shows, having lunch at Manhattan’s famous Sardi’s restaurant and making a cameo appearance tonight in the Broadway musical “Kinky Boots.”

If Miss P has you thinking about getting a Beagle, please consider adopting one — there are plenty of what the American Kennel Club describes as “curious, friendly and merry” dogs available in shelters and through rescue organizations. The Beagle Dog Rescue Shelter Directory lists rescues across the country.

Photos via Facebook

Patty Hearst’s Shih Tzu Rocket Wins Westminster Toy Group

Patty Hearst has “Rocket”-ed back into news headlines, har har har.

Her Shih Tzu, GCH Hallmark Jolei Rocket Power — aka “Rocket” — won the Toy Group at the 139th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show last night. The Best in Show winner will be announced tonight.

Hearst (who now goes by the name Patricia Hearst-Shaw), granddaughter of publisher William Randolph Hearst, was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army in 1974. A photo of her, holding a semiautomatic rifle while robbing a bank, went what would have been considered viral back in the ’70s.

She spent nearly two years in prison, but her sentence was commuted by President Jimmy Carter. She was later given a full pardon by President Bill Clinton.

In the 1990s, Hearst-Shaw became an actress, with co-starring roles in the John Waters films “Cry-Baby” and “Serial Mom.”

About 10 years later, she became involved in showing dogs.

“People move on,” she told reporters after Rocket’s win yesterday, according to the New York Post. “I guess people somehow imagine you don’t evolve in your life. I have grown daughters and granddaughters and other things that normal people have.”

Among those “other things” Hearst-Shaw has are show dogs. She primarily shows French Bulldogs, one of whom won a ribbon yesterday. She co-owns Rocket the Shih Tzu with two others.

While Hearst-Shaw said she is a dog lover, her two daughters have cats.

“I don’t know what I did wrong,” she told reporters.

The 139th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Shows airs live tonight at 8 p.m. ET on the USA Network.

And just a reminder to adopt, not shop — many shelters and rescue groups have purebred dogs waiting for forever homes.

Photos via Facebook, famouspictures.org

4-Year-Old Writes Letter to ‘Bad Men’ Who Stole Lupo Lookalike Fern

Two years ago, Fern, a black Cocker Spaniel/Springer Spaniel mix, was stolen from the Ferrier family’s farm in England.

Ethan Ferrier was only 2 years old at the time, but for a school lesson in letter writing yesterday, he decided to write a note to the dog snatchers.

“To the bad men who took Fern. Can Fern come home now please. I miss her,” he wrote.

His letter, along with a picture he drew of his family with Fern, was posted on social media yesterday in hopes of finding the dog, who is microchipped.

“Ethan was very, very upset when Fern was taken from our farm — he would ask over and over again why anyone would want to take her from us,” his mom, Jodie, told the Telegraph.

She said the family has been “campaigning tirelessly” to find Fern ever since she disappeared in April 2013, including the creation of the Find Fern Facebook community and Twitter account @FindFernwithme.

“[Ethan] has never forgotten about Fern, and always asks us where we think she is and if she is happy,” Jodie said. “He asks me every morning if Fern is coming back home, and I have to tell him I don’t know. It’s heartbreaking.”

Jodie thinks Fern was dognapped for breeding purposes since she bears a strong resemblance to Lupo, the black English Cocker Spaniel belonging to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. The family’s two other dogs at the time, a Collie and Springer Spaniel, were not taken along with Fern.

Because of the popularity of Lupo, the demand for Cocker Spaniels is high. After Lupo joined William and Kate in 2011, the Kennel Club reported a 50-percent increase in searches for Cocker Spaniels on its “Find A Puppy” website.

Thefts of the breed have also been on the rise. In January 2013, pet detective Colin Butcher told the Telegraph he was investigating a record number of dognapped black Cocker Spaniels.

Ethan’s dad, Tom, said that because of the popularity of Lupo lookalikes, breeders are now charging up to $1,500 for puppies.

“We want to make people aware of this problem, because it is getting worse,” he told the Telegraph.

To raise awareness of dog theft and help get Fern back, the family is asking people to share photos and dog “selfies” on social media with the hashtag #findfern.

“We still hope with all our hearts that Fern will be found one day,” Jodie told the Telegraph. “If only the people who took her knew the devastation they had caused, maybe they would bring her back.”

Photos via Twitter, Facebook

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