Starting today, eight Bay Area shelters are offering free spaying/neutering to pit bull owners. Although a few shelters, such as the East Bay SPCA offer the free service year-round, the organizers of Bay Area Pit Fix Week are hoping that by offering spaying/neutering this week, the lives of thousands of pit bulls (and the people they otherwise might maul if not for being fixed) will be spared. Thousands of pit bulls are euthanized in the......

Another mauling, y'all. This time in San Jose. A toddler, 20-month-old Anna Leigh Cinco, and her grandmother, 48-year-old Elizabeth Cinco, were sent to the hospital with serious wounds after being mauled by the family dog. A pitbull (according to the Gate, via AP) or a boxer-mix (according to CBS 5) attacked the infant on her chin, and left bite marks on the neck, ear and right leg of the grandmother. Ouchie. It seems that......

What a day, what a day, what a day... -- Man who killed cop in 2005 receives death sentence. [Chron] -- Dow Jones down. [Chron] -- Police raid Your Black Muslim Bakery, arrests made in connection with yesterday's murder. [Chron, Examiner, KGO, Oakland Tribune, The Snitch (SFW)] -- 29-year-old SF man killed in Visitacion Valley on Thursday. [Chron] -- Matt Smith on the resignation of New College of California's president. [The Snitch (SFW)] --......

The Chron, giving you the news from the animal point of view! They settled the Alameda County garbage strike lockout! After a nine-hour mediation, Oakland mayor Ron Dellums announced late yesterday night that all the parties had managed to resolve the four-week dispute. No one can disclose the details, but the union will vote on whether to accept the proposal this Saturday. If the union approves the deal, regular garbage pickup could resume as early......

As discussed in the SFist Contributes tips page, what people heard in Ingleside Heights early yesterday morning was a mysterious car explosion. Witnesses saw a man park a car, get out of the car and into someone else's, and then the parked car burst into flames. Around 7:00 a.m, another car mysteriously exploded, this time in the Tenderloin at Ellis and Taylor. The two incidents aren't thought to be related -- but how weird. Gimmi......

We want a dog so bad we've taken to following strangers in the street in the hope that they'll stop at the “don’t walk sign” and let us pet Fido. One may wonder why we haven't run to the shelter to adopt one yet. The official reason we give the weary stranger towering over us while we crouch down to scratch his pit bull’s head is that our landlord doesn't allow pets. But truth be told, our common sense buckles at the idea of having to walk a hyperactive mutt called Schnitzel at 4AM when we just barely managed to crawl back home from the Orbit Room. Fortunately there is a heaven for lazy dog lovers and it is called Alamo Square. ...

Yee-ha! It's animal roundup time! Thanks to reader SFOJim, who sent along this adorable picture of the coyote in Golden Gate Park. Run, boy, run! There's two or three coyotes who live around the Richmond. It's Blessing of the Animals time again! Churches all over are celebrating St. Francis of Assisi's feast day today, October 4, and throughout the week as well. We missed the one in SF, though -- it was last week. A......

You know who doesn't want to Spare The Air anymore? BART. Disturbed by the uptick in crime as a result of the all-day free rides (on that last Friday of Sparing The Air, the BART police went on twice as many calls as usual), the BART police chief has proposed that they go back to just making BART free during commute hours on extra hot and smoggy days. Matier and Ross had some lurid crimes......

"This is West Pittsburg!" Two people in Walnut Creek who were selling hooded jackets on Craigslist got held up at gunpoint in the Walnut Creek Target underground garage by their would-be buyers, two Asian-American teens (one of whom was wearing a cap that said VIETNAMESE on it and the other of whom was wearing a gold grill on his teeth). As the teens sped off in their Lexus with their 11 unpaid-for jackets, they flashed......

News from the fauna! A male blue heron from Fairfield is recovering from a pellet gun wound to its wing at the International Bird Rescue Research Center. Because blue herons are protected under federal migratory bird laws, injuring a heron is a felony -- and because people love animals, there's a $5000 reward for information leading to an arrest. They're watching the bird closely because it seems very anxious to fly away (understandably). In happier local bird news, Stephen Colbert's adopted bald eagle was hatched (go to "Stephen Jr. Hatches") at the SF Zoo the day before the earthquake anniversary. Exciting! Also: it was cool when he ate the bird's placenta, to be just like Tom Cruise (go to "tip/wag Tom Cruise"). And in your last bit of local animal news, the City and County of San Francisco's been sued by a Sacramento pit bull advocacy group, over the new mandatory pit bull sterilization law. The Coalition of Human Advocates for K9s and Owners ("CHAKO"), through its attorney and founder Dawn Capp, alleges that the policy discriminates against disabled people, who should be permitted to breed pit bulls to use as guide dogs or service dogs. Check out Capp's blog for more information -- the most recent entry castigates the Denver location of the next Real World because of the city's anti-pit bull legislation....

We love San Francisco and we love animals and we love seeing the bad guys get caught. Now we can see all three things at once in Animal Cops San Francisco on the Animal Planet Channel. We only hope these brave souls are not so busy enforcing the new pit bull laws that they don’t have time to crack down on bars that discriminate against dogs. Cama is not one of those bars. It on......

Friend of SFist Andi has taken in a dog that needs a home. If you or someone you know is interested in adopting this big boy, drop us a line. Meet Hank. He's part pit bull, part something else (mastiff?), and all awesome. Hank was abandoned in front of our house in Oakland last Friday night, in the rain. He's a big guy, and we didn't want to approach him too soon, but we......

Ever since Deadspin started running their "Why Your Hometown Columnist Sucks" feature we've been eagerly awaiting to see if one of our hometown sports columnists is indeed deemed as sucking. Not just because we were curious as to see who Deadspin Will would pick but also because we like our sports columnists. In fact, we love us some Ray Ratto and Bruce Jenkins and think Ira Miller is as good as anyone. So, then, if Deadspin picked a San Francisco columnist, who would it be? Would you believe C.W. Nevius? ...

What's going on with our four-legged friends? Well -- Oakland's passed a law making it illegal to own more than three animals in one house. You can petition to have more, but only if you can show that all the animals are registered and spayed/neutered. People who already have more than three pets are grandfathered in, but for those animals only (so you can't swap out Fluffy for Bane later or anything). This will supposedly make it easier to take legal action against the dreaded animal hoarders. We like the euphemism they use on Animal Precinct -- you're not a hoarder, you're just "overwhelmed." Across the bay, a San Francisco cop shot a pit bull charging at him as he investigated reports of squatters in the Portola District. No human injuries were suffered. In other animal-human encounters, two "terrified" campers fled their campsite on Mount Tam as two mountain lions, um, propragated their species. And the SF SPCA has just received a $13 million gift, which is the largest gift in the organization's history. They'll use the money to build a new animal hospital. The hospital will be called the Leanne Roberts Animal Care Center, in honor of a former board member of the SPCA who died in 2003 (and whose husband ponied up the cash). The hospital will be finished around 2007 -- just in time for the third season of Animal Cops SF! ...

We had a lump in our throat Saturday when we read that Ember, the Bayview pit bull who had been set on fire, was euthanized due to the severity of her injuries. And before we get any comments/hate mail on why pit bulls are good prospects for euthanasia regardless, let's all think about this again: someone set this animal on fire, and left it to die. This dog fought to live for three weeks......

Special "SFist Rita is out of town, so bear with us" edition. So sad. The San Leandro police department is on the hunt for one Irving "Gotti" Ramirez of Newark who is suspected of killing a SLPD officer. The officer was responding to a complaint about noisy loiterers when Ramirez and an accomplice allegedly drove up in a Thunderbird and shot him in the head. The officer, a three year veteran, leaves behind a wife......

Last week's winner, the Weekly: Are you an apologist for Tom Cruise? Cover article: SF Cardinal Levada's denial of Catholic sexual abuse in the Bay Area. Meredith Brody hits her western boundary at Max's on Van Ness and Golden Gate. Bands in town next week: the peppy Go! Team and Sufjan (pronounced "Soof-yan") Stevens with two of the fifty nifty United States. Savage Love: male bisexuals -- are they real? And why don't bis date other bis? The EBX: Why do shooting-range targets have pictures of animals on them? Cruelty! Poorly-retrofitted houses. Cover article: A guy who loves metal (not Chuck Klosterman). Bay to Barkers! (not the family of Travis from blink 182). Judging pies at the Alameda County Fair. The Hammer show sucked. The top 10 Li'l Jon hits (we like his work with Pitbull ourselves.) More KPFA drama, this time featuring the hip-hop show Hard Knock Radio. And Sufjan! After the jump, Sufjan and other delectables in the SFBG, and the pick of the week. ...

Was it not enough that we broke Dogster? (Get well soon, SFist Ted! We need you to cover the upcoming heat wave!) We've got even more bad dog news to report. Local animal shelters and pet rescue groups are asking Craigslist not to post ads for dogs and cats for sale, claiming that the website makes for easy access to a marketplace for the dreaded "backyard breeder," making a quick buck by selling inbred and ill-socialized pit bulls. The East Bay SPCA found in one month 183 listings for unneutered pit bull puppies, some as "human-aggressive." And the dog-loving number-crunchers have finished their reports, and found that pit bulls account for 27% of all known dog attacks since 2003, even though they constitute only 6% of the licensed dog population. The statisticians warn that it could be that people are likely to report pit bull attacks and less likely to register pit bulls, but still. Out of 900+ bites since 2003, 626 were traced to a specific dog. Of that 626, 169 were traced to pits. That was more than the next three species combined (German shepherds with 69, labs with 58, and rottweilers with 34). A man also tells a harrowing tale of being attacked by a pit bull in the DVD section of the SoMisPo Best Buy. Uh, who brings a pit bull to Best Buy? Were they checking out TiVos? ...

Okay, did someone just flip a switch inside the brains of Bay Area pit bull mixes to the "kill the two-legged ones" setting? (Yes, we know, it's just excessive media attention and not some kind of new sinister trend.) Yesterday, yet another girl was attacked by a pit bull, this time in San Francisco, and a (neutered) pit bull with a history of aggression in Rohnert Park bit its owner and attacked two other dogs. Meanwhile, the pit bull that attacked the Santa Rosa girl last week (the one on the cover of the Chron) will be euthanized, but no criminal charges will be pressed. Authorities hypothesize that the dog just didn't like the little girl. Is that seven pit bull attacks in the last month? Well, if it's not pit bulls attacking children, it's San Francisco attacking smokers: don't forget the ordinance banning outdoor smoking in city-owned spaces goes into effect this Friday. And hey! Eric Anduri, the dude who threw the beer on Jason Giambi at the A's game last month pled not guilty. Not guilty? Didn't he do this in front of 20,000+ fans? Is he going to plead self-defense? Don't you think his father, the mayor of Lafayette, should be advocating a more manly acceptance of responsibility for his actions? ...

Well, we all knew it was going to happen -- SF DA Kamala Harris is bringing charges against Maureen Faibish for felony child endangerment. As Harris said at the press conference, "We are not in the business of vilifying parents, but in this city, we are also not in the business of allowing children to be placed in situations where they are killed when it is completely preventable." Sure. Meanwhile, a girl mauled by a pit bull in Santa Rosa the other day is recovering, and an elderly man successfully fled a pit bull attack in San Jose. The SFPD has released the 911 tapes (audio) of Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White's husband's subsequently-recanted tale of spousal abuse. "My wife is JOANNE HAYES-WHITE, THE FIRE CHIEF!!! Ow! No! Don't come near me again with that pint glass!! Don't hit me again! Aaaaaaaaagh!! Did I mention my wife is JOANNE HAYES-WHITE, THE FIRE CHIEF???" And the feds indicted 19 people in the medical marijuana enforcement action, or, what they're calling "Operation Urban Harvest." Kevin Ryan, the Bay Area's US Attorney, claims that the people busted were using medical marijuana stores as a front to sell $5 million of pot to healthy people. ...

So best is back!!! And do we see..... a Kimberly Guilfoyle-Newsom-Newsom in the future?? Matier and Ross report that Gav and Kim went together to dinner at Enrico's and then out for drinks at the Tosca (where, you may recall, Harper's took those racy photos at the pool table -- oops, no, wait, is that Matty Gonzo???). Gav slunk into Enrico's wearing a heavy coat (since it's been so cold around here lately) and a Yankees cap, gifted by Kim. Kimbers, who we assume is in town for the pit bull panel, was beaming throughout the meal with ex-Da Mayor Willie Brown and Stanlee Gatti, and Gav reportedly repeatedly referred to her as "my wife." Wow, drink and dial really does work! Try it yourself!...

Domestic turmoil -- Sean White, the non-hyphenated husband of SF Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White, called the cops Sunday night, claiming that his wife had hit him on the head with a pint glass. The cops, though, noticed no signs of injury on Mr. White. As of Monday, though, Sean White is retracting the story, and reports have Chief Hayes-White telling the cops that he hit himself and then called 911. The couple is in the middle of a separation. The pit bull panel has met, and has decided it will begin lobbying the state to rescind its ban on breed-specific legislation, so it can institute requirements that all pit bulls in the city be spayed or neutered. Meanwhile, local fines for failing to microchip or get a license will be raised, more dog education classes will be held, "backyard breeding" will be banned, and dog owners will be required to get liability insurance. And finally, Kaiser Permanente has been fined $200,000 for accidentally putting patient information on a public web page. However, the woman who alerted the media to the privacy breach -- by reposting the data on her blog -- still faces civil liability. ...

KRON 4 viewers are the best! After seeing a heartwrenching news clip on KRON 4 about a kitten stuck in a pipe for two days, a KRON 4 watcher who works as an excavator was moved to go down to the pipe and help find Smoky the cat. Thanks to his help, the rescuers were able to locate Smoky in the pipe and get her out. She's doing fine, thanks for asking! The only other animal news around here is pit bull-related. So the Peninsula Humane Society is offering $10 to anyone who brings in a pit bull to be spayed or neutered. And two pit bulls who attacked two people and three dogs at the end of May in McLaren Park were found to be "vicious and dangerous" by Animal Cops SF hero and Dog Court Judge Officer Bill Herndon, and will be euthanized. One of the dogs had mangled the hand of a guy trying to break up the fight, and the other had disemboweled (yikes!) another dog (which survived!). ...

Lotta animal news out there this week. First on everyone's mind is the situation in San Francisco concerning Nicholas Faibish, the boy mauled to death by his family's pit bulls, and buried on Wednesday. Yesterday, SF Animal Care and Control held the first of many meetings seeking public comment on how to handle pit bulls in the city. A large number of pit bull advocates were present at the meeting, and urged the city not to impose breed-specific legislation. One person said he didn't think that the dogs that mauled Faibish were even pit bulls at all. Everyone seems to agree, though, that a general requirement for spaying and neutering pit bulls in the city is a good first step. Sigh. In other animal news, the head of the SF Zoo penguin display is resigning because she got in a fight with the zoo vet about how they should have treated the penguins' recent chlamydia outbreak. We know, we know, it's not sexually transmitted in penguins -- but still, people! Ew! ...

Nick Faibish's mauling continues to send shock waves across the city -- Gavin Newsom's announced that he's starting a panel to look into possible restrictions on pit bull ownership in San Francisco. Gavin has indicated that he may ask for advice from a certain Ms. K. Guifoyle-Hemmer, who, you may recall, was previously on the SF DA's animal law team before her move out East. The panel is not expected to recommend an all-out ban on pit bull ownership in the city, but avenues for increasing Animal Care and Control's budget, like enforcing license requirements, will be explored. (What, they're not getting any money off Animal Planet?) As for the Faibish family, they're reportedly going to ask that ACC put down Rex, the male dog that attacked Nick. You probably remember that Ella, their female dog, was shot by the SFPD on the day of the incident. Authorities are speculating that the mauling may have been caused by a number of stressors, including the fact that Ella was in heat; the family was moving and everything was getting packed up; and the dogs' primary owner (Nick's father) was away in Oregon setting up their new house. And tying up some other reports, ACC reports that they had previously held Rex not for viciousness or attacking behavior, but because he was stolen and subsequently found in an arrest (thanks to his microchip). Finally, the family of the boy in Richmond who was attacked by three pit bulls in 2001 has expressed their concern and sympathy for the Faibishes, and notes that they have started a foundation to help survivors of dog maul attacks. And C.W. Nevius recalls the 80-year-old woman who survived her attack by a pit bull (in the service of decrying pro pit-bull activists). ...

Bay Area crime roundup...