Four months for Md. man who threw Chihuahua off bridge

A man who threw a stranger's 4-pound Chihuahua off a bridge to her death in a fit of anger told the owners Monday that he “was wrong, plain and simple,” before a judge sentenced him to four months in jail.

David M. Beers, 35, an unemployed cell-tower technician and Marine Corps veteran, also must pay a $1,000 fine, perform 300 hours of community service, and pay $318 restitution to Caisha and Timothy Wantz of Jefferson for killing their dog Zoey on June 19, 2009.

Frederick County Circuit Judge G. Edward Dwyer Jr. suspended a three-year prison term and ordered Beers to serve three years of supervised probation after his release.

Beers pleaded guilty in March to felony animal cruelty and misdemeanor theft for returning to the Wantzes' home after they had ordered him off their rural property and snatching the dog from an outdoor pen. They had a heated exchange minutes earlier when the Wantzes, on their way out, met Beers in their quarter-mile driveway making a cell phone call. He claimed he had mistaken the dirt lane for a service road.

Beers, a father of six, told investigators Mrs. Wantz threw coffee on his car and threatened to shoot him. To get even, he waited nearby until the family left, grabbed the white-and-tan Chihuahua and, as he drove home to Brunswick, threw her out the passenger window into Catoctin Creek, 20 feet below a bridge four miles from the Wantzes' house.

Beers confessed to police after Caisha Wantz tracked him down, alerted authorities and launched an Internet campaign against him. On Monday, Assistant State's Attorney Colleen K. Swanson gave the judge a petition bearing 1,200 electronic signatures supporting the Wantzes' demand for a harsh sentence.

“Zoey was our baby,” said Caisha Wantz, who also has two small children. “This affected our family the way the loss of a child would.” She said the episode so upset her and her family that they plan to move to avoid future contact with Beers.

“I believe with all my heart and soul that we are in danger,” she said.

State's Attorney J. Charles Smith said jail time was appropriate.

“The most troubling thing about this case is, if it wasn't for the pet, what then? What if a child was there? What would he have done to their home?”

Judge Dwyer said there was no rational explanation for Beers' actions.

“I can't get beyond the fact — whether it was an aberration on your part or not — that you came back,” Dwyer said, “And you deliberately stole the dog and you killed it.”

By Washington Post Editors  |  June 8, 2010; 7:48 AM ET

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It's a Girl! Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon Welcome a Puppy

It's no joke: Mariah Carey and husband Nick Cannon are proud puppy parents.

Though Cannon raised a few eyebrows in May when he playfully announced to E! that the couple's Jack Russell pup ChaCha was expecting, Carey took to Twitter on Monday to announce some good news. "ChaCha just had her baby! Its a giiirl!!!" she Tweeted. "Anybody want a beautiful Jack russell puppy?! Jk: )"

While the couple have dodged their own pregnancy rumors, at least they put this one to rest. Here's hoping they find a good home for their newest addition!

Jun 08 2010 11:30am by www.peoplepets.com

Dog owners get activities, quality time with pets at camp

Summer camp is veering in a new direction — toward grown-ups and their dogs.

Nature walks, swimming and memory-making campfires (all dog-focused) are being augmented with agility training, cooking-for-canines instruction, bury-the-bone competitions and dozens of other activities for pooch-loving participants.

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"It's a great way to have 100% together time with your dog, enjoying nature and activities, instead of just feeding them and walking them," says Margaret Rapp of Arlington Heights, Ill. She attended Camp Dogwood in Ingleside, Ill., last year with Danny, her spaniel mix, and Ollie, a Cavalier King Charles spaniel who was a recent puppy mill rescue.

"Camp also gives you a chance to try many different things — without paying for eight sessions, as is the case at home," she says. She was surprised to learn at camp that Danny wasn't interested in flyball, though he did embrace other active-dog stuff. Ollie, on the other hand, preferred laze-about activities like massage (but he did work hard to pass his Canine Good Citizenship certification while there).

Camp Dogwood ($420 to $700 for three nights and four days, depending on the accommodations), held three times a year at an overnight camp for kids (when kid camp's not in session), is among a growing number of canine-and-owner retreats for active and inactive dogs and their people.

Join in — or not

"We keep some things the same every session," says Alysa Slay, a clinical psychologist who co-founded the Camp Dogwood sessions in 2001, "but we're always adding new things."

The scores of activities and lectures include water sports, herding, dog fur spinning and ask-the-vet sessions.

Most canine camps are held at waterfront facilities — rustic cabins and/or tent or RV sites — that serve as kid camps, music workshops or couples-counseling retreats most of the time but that occasionally go to the dogs.

Most limit participants to 20 to 100 humans plus their dogs (some allow two dogs per person), and many exclude kids younger than 18 on the grounds that a person keeping track of children isn't as able to bond with a dog in the ideal way.

Some campers partake of every offering they can cram in. But if the two- and four-legged clients just want to chill, that's fine. "If someone wants to sit under a tree with her dog or go for a stroll, just the two of them, that's just fine," says Lory Kohlmoos, director of Camp Winnaribbun, a three-times-a-year week-long camp in Stateline, Nev., on the shores of Lake Tahoe ($1,300 for lodging, meals and activities).

"Everyone learns a lot about themselves and about their dogs," Kohlmoos says, even if the humans skip some of the dozens of activities, which range from tracking to crafts to homeopathy sessions.

Happy campers keep coming back

As interest in the concept grows, so, too, do the kinds of venues. Minneapolis dog trainer Lisa Sellman organized her first three-night, four-day dog lovers' retreat at the upscale Gunflint Lodge in Grand Marais, Minn., in October, and response was sufficiently strong that seven have been scheduled for 2010 ($399 a person, which includes cushy accommodations, most meals and scads of dog activities).

The lodge has been dog-friendly since 1928 out of necessity, because dog sled teams were used to haul supplies, but during retreat times, the trails and conference rooms are filled with dogs and people participating in such things as "Doggie Socials," positive training classes and Sellman's demonstrations of Tellington TTouch, a form of body work that reduces the stress and tension of dogs.

Camps that have been around for a while have a huge return rate — 60% to 75% of their clientele each session are return campers, they say. The humans make friends they enjoy seeing again, and so do the dogs.

"Some of the dogs came for the first time as puppies," says Kohlmoos, whose Camp Winnaribbun celebrates its 16th season this year, "and then they're brought back when they are old and pulled around on a wagon so they can have one last time to enjoy the sunshine and water."

By Sharon L. Peters, Special for USA TODAY