Pet Charities.

There have been a number of reports about people trying to smuggle exotic animals past airport security and customs officials by drugging them and packing them in suitcases. As reported in Agence France-Presse via Raw Story, a German man was willing and eager to take another step to hang onto his illegal cargo. The 28-year-old German man, returning from Oman, was stopped by customs officials in Munich after they found 31 spiny-tailed lizards and 18 other reptiles, including geckos and wall lizards, in his luggage. The man (who remains unidentified) said that the animals were meant as foodstuffs - were for his "personal food supply" - and that this was the reason he had gone through the ...

Any animal lover who feeds strays in the street on a regular basis has the recurring daydream of whisking them all away to safety, and for Danica Mirkovic of Serbia, dreams do come true. For many years, Danica and her fellow volunteers of Felinologic Association Felix took care of stray cats in Novi Sad, making sure they had food and water and that their veterinary needs were tended to. But there was simply no way to protect the cats from the day-to-day dangers that come with homelessness. And one day, out of the blue, one of the cats was harmed so irreparably that Danica could not squelch the fire in her heart. "I found a kitten with his hind legs cut off on the street," Danica recalls ...

Monday, Suffolk County activates the first animal abuser registry in the United States, which will make public the identities of convicted animal abusers. The internet registry will display their names, addresses and photographs. The law requires pet stores, breeders and animal shelters to check the registry and not sell or adopt animals to anyone on it, according to the Animal Law Coalition. Abusers will stay on the registry for five years each, and will face jail time or fines if they do not sign up for and renew their registrations throughout that period. See More Dogs and Cats: ...

RENO, Nev. (AP) - Smokey Bear has done such a good job stamping out forest fires the past half-century that a woodpecker that's survived for millions of years by eating beetle larvae in burned trees is in danger of going extinct in parts of the West, according to conservationists seeking U.S. protection for the bird. Four conservation groups filed a petition with the U.S. Interior Department on Wednesday to list the black-backed woodpecker under the Endangered Species Act in the Sierra Nevada, Oregon's Eastern Cascades and the Black Hills of eastern Wyoming and western South Dakota. See More Woodpeckers: ...

Since April 27th, a lost, seven foot dolphin has been swimming in a narrow wetlands channel off the coast of Southern California. His pod entered the channel in pursuit of a school of fish. When the others veered back, one lone dolphin stayed behind in the Bolsa Chica wetlands. RELATED: Dolphins Exposed to Oil Seriously Ill Crowds gathered to watch as Department of Fish and Game officers on paddleboards tried to nudge the animal into open sea. They succeeded Saturday, but the lost dolphin was spooked when it caught sight of an unrelated pod swimming in circles nearby. Diving beneath the paddleboarders, the dolphin swam back into the wetlands. Peter Wallerstein, a marine biologist with ...