Readers know I’m no “Peta”-type freak when it comes to animals generally. As a committed, dedicated omnivore, I never could be (though I no longer eat veal or foi grois). When it comes to mistreatment of domesticated animals, however, I’m a crazed zealot.

If you’re like me on this, there’s some good news in the case of Ronald Fredricks, Seaside Heights, N.J., as reported in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer (“Bail for Owner of Burned Dogs is Up to $50,000,” by Sam Wood).

Fredricks’s two dogs, Shadow, a 6-month-old Shepherd mix, and Poppy, a two-year-old Pekingese, badly burned by the defendant, are now in the custody of the Popcorn Park Zoo, Lacey, N.J.

Better: “Fredricks . . . will never see the dogs again, said Scott Watkins, an investigator with the New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. ‘They have been officially confiscated,’ he said yesterday. ‘There’s absolutely no way he’s getting those animals back.”

Shadow and Poppy will need a new home. According to the Inquirer, “[Z]oo officials and humane-society workers will try to place them with a loving family. ‘They’re going to try to adopt them out together,’ he said. ‘And obviously they’ll seek the best home.”

If you’re in the area and are interested in adopting these dogs, call the Popcorn Park Zoo at (609) 693-1900.