Free Republic

Rescuers are asking boat captains to be on the lookout for a gray whale caught in a crab trap heading north along Orange County’s coastline... “We felt very uncertain about what damage it would cause to the whale with this unusual entanglement,” If you are out on the water and see a whale in distress, call 1-877-SOS-WHALE.

A pet prairie dog became a viral sensation for its carefree attitude after it was rescued from a house fire in Pennsylvania. Red Paw Emergency Relief Team shared photos of Vern the prairie dog, one of three "dogs" rescued after a fire broke out in Montgomery County. Vern captured the hearts of the group's Facebook followers with his relaxed facial expression as he lay next to one of his canine housemates with his belly exposed. Volunteers from Red Paw Emergency Relief Team joined emergency crews at the scene of the fire to help rescue the pets and ensure they had...

A pair of goats dressed in snuggies were found roaming around an Idaho town unattended. Nampa Police Department shared a photo of an Animal Control Officer holding the two escaped animals, each donning its own blue snuggie, in hopes of tracking down their owner. "Have you lost your goats? Or your Snuggies? If so, we found them near Lake Lowell and Midland Blvd.," police said. The goats were taken to West Valley Humane Society where the owners were instructed to pick up their missing animals. Officers managed to track down the owners within about three hours to reunite them with...

An Ohio truck driver is being credited for his warm heart and his ability to pay attention to things others may have overlooked. When Dan O’Grady passed a little dog on the side of the highway in Florida, he knew he had to do something. He pulled over on the next exit and walked back to find the little dog. The frantic Jack Russell terrier barked at O’Grady and continued to run away from him every time he got close. O’Grady refused to give up and followed the terrier into the woods by the highway. Underneath a bush, O’Grady saw...

Heartless family leaves escaped dog at shelter, adopts new pup By Chris Perez November 29, 2016 | 6:09pm A California family is being hounded on Facebook after they were caught on camera doing their dog dirty — getting her all happy and excited to leave an animal control shelter and then adopting a new four-legged best friend, instead. Heart-wrenching video posted on Monday by a worker at the Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control center in Downey shows the German Shepherd, Zuzu, frantically wagging her tail and barking for joy after spotting her despicable owners. The pooch...

A free puppy may sound great in theory, but one Arizona man got more than he bargained for when his new pet behaved, um, rather interestingly. The young pup acted very nervously, needing constant companionship and peeing and pooping all over his owner's car. That's pretty run-of-the-mill for a puppy, but the dog also became quite the escape artist.

Gov. Jerry Brown on Saturday signed into law a measure allowing Californians to break into vehicles to rescue animals if they appear to be in danger from excessive heat. **SNIP** Under AB 797, a citizen must first call law enforcement to report a situation in which he or she believes an animal to be in peril. But if the animal is in imminent danger, the car is locked, and law enforcement is not arriving quickly enough to save the animal’s life, the bill provides immunity from civil and criminal liability to a person causing vehicle damage for the purpose of...

Homeowners returned to a Sand Canyon neighborhood Monday night, days after the raging Sand Fire tore through the area. For some like John Kim, returning to the area meant picking through the remains of his home. Kim’s neighbor died in his car trying to outrun the flames. The victim was a man in his 60’s. He lived on the property with a woman, who was too distraught to speak. Their home also burned to the ground. Kim says the man who died went back to rescue his dog.

On this special Breaking Trail Outtake, Coyote's new friend the Ocelot steals his socks! In an attempt to recover his last dry pair of Wigwams, a classic tug-of-war ensues with this feisty jungle cat. Who will win the battle? Well you’ll just have to watch to find out! Get ready Coyote, an Ocelot just stole your socks! Ocelot’s have a wide range stretching from Argentina to Texas and while they have fairly healthy populations in the topics they are extremely elusive and rarely seen by humans. There has never been another video like this and we feel so extremely fortunate...

A dog chained to a front porch was the latest to be evacuated from flooded areas in Texas as rain continues to fall around the state. A KPRC-TV news crew (from Houston) stepped in to help rescue a dog who was chained to the front porch of a home in Fort Bend County.

Over a dozen German shepherds, rescued from an abandoned house in Highland, California, are embarking on a new life with the help of a breed specific rescue agency. The German Shepherd Rescue of Orange County has been hard at work, pulling many of the homeless German shepherds out of the Devore Animal Shelter - on Tuesday, the founder of the organization updated Facebook followers about the rescue effort. The Facebook post states, "Yesterday was another very rewarding day, with 6 more of the dogs from the Devore confiscation being removed from the shelter. The dogs have all been very agreeable,...

More than 30 German shepherds and other large dogs were found abandoned at a home in a San Bernardino County community where neighbors reported "nonstop" barking and a horrible odor. The dogs, including two dead dogs, were found in a Highland home that was red-tagged by the County of San Bernardino Department of Public Health.

This goat got into trouble after kidding around on some power lines. The animal somehow managed to trap itself by its horns on overhead cables, leaving it dangling from a hillside above a 20-ft drop to a road. As this amazing footage shows, the goat was caught in the lines and couldn’t get down. It had to be removed by a team of men, who used a ladder to tie a rope around the animal’s leg, before one of them pulled the goat back to the hill and set it free.

BISBEE — A case of dog hoarding had a positive outcome Thursday when the owner agreed to voluntarily relinquish 37 of her 63 dogs, who all appeared to be healthy and well-socialized according to representatives from the Humane Society of Southern Arizona, which took the dogs to be checked out, neutered and spayed and then adopted. Kelly Galligan, president of Friends of Bisbee Animal Shelter, helped coordinate the effort after talking with the woman at her home in Bisbee Junction last month, where she was keeping 62 shih tzus and a one-eyed poodle. “Kelly reached out to me and said...

Link

Dog lover Anthony Riggs was killed by a Rottweiler he had adopted from an animal control centre Anthony Riggs had adopted the dog Photo: Jackson Madison County Rabies Control Tributes have been paid to a Tennessee man who was 'mauled to death' by a stray dog he had adopted on the day he died. Anthony Riggs was attacked by a five-year-old male Rottweiler that had been taken in by a county-run animal control facility. "He never hesitated to be with dogs. Sometimes I thought he related to dogs better than to people," his ex-wife Adrienne Riggs told the Jackson Sun....

Beachgoers in Lubec, Maine, near the Canadian border, tried to save a 30-foot-long basking shark that recently washed ashore, according to a video showing the desperate rescue attempt. Onlooker Mark Olsen recorded the video Wednesday morning, when more than a dozen people spent several hours pouring buckets of ocean water into the large shark's gills and onto its skin. The 30-foot-long shark can be seen immobile, lying on its side with a bloodied fin in the video. Despite the efforts to save the shark, it died Wednesday afternoon, according to Lubec Town Administrator John Sutherland. He said the College of...

Pleasing cat lovers everywhere, but likely disappointing many dogs, the Sacramento Fire Department rescued a cat trapped in a car’s engine compartment Wednesday, according to News10.

Every Year, Misguided Good Samaritans Snatch the Animals from West Seattle Beaches (It Usually Doesn't End So Well)If a human stumbles across a baby seal, one of the first things that person might notice about the baby seal is its eyes. "They're just these big, dark, limpid, black eyes holding yours," West Seattle resident Brenda Peterson tells me on a recent August evening. "You're just a goner, and people go, 'Oh, my god.'" We're at an undisclosed location near a West Seattle waterfront so Peterson, a well-published nature writer who has lived in the area for 23 years, can...

When firefighters battling a 7,000 acre wildfire in Arizona spotted a donkey emerging from the flames, they cooled off his singed body with their hose. Now, they can't get rid of him. It was unknown whether the donkey was tame or wild, but after the rescue, she followed her heroes around all day — refusing to leave their side. Thankfully, after being pried away from his new friends, George the donkey was reunited with his owners.