The double amputee Olympic runner, Oscar Pistorius was the inspiration for a veterinary technician in St. Cloud, Florida to stop the request to put down a 2-week-old chihuahua puppy born without functioning front legs. Vickie Dryer decided to rehabilitate him instead.
Nine-month-old Flipper the kitten was born with a twisted spine that makes it impossible for him to stand up -- or walk about without dragging himself laboriously. But little Flipper's life was changed forever by cat-lovers from a high school robotics club in Colorado.
2015 has been an amazing year for kids who have taught us a lot about generosity, kindness, and selflessness... These five show us how it's done...
A new Olympic Park arose in a once derelict and contaminated industrial area of east London turning neglected waterways into wildlife havens. Almost 500 acres of land (200 hectares) have been razed and redeveloped for the 2012 Olympic Games, and 45 of those have been given over to creating new wildlife habitats for kingfishers, bats, otters and snakes -- while much of the rest has been left as parkland.
When it comes to tackling San Francisco's entrenched panhandling problem, City Hall has tried just about everything. But it's never tried puppies - until now. Starting Aug. 1, the city - in a program believed to be the first of its kind in the country - will exchange a small stipend for fostering problematic puppies, readying them for adoption
Officials in Paris this week looking for a greener way to keep its lawns mowed, replaced the fleet of noisy gas-guzzling lawnmowers with a small flock of sheep that are grazing the city's open spaces. The scheme also cuts down on the need for chemical herbicides.
A terrified kitten has been rescued on Dublin's busy M50 thanks to the police (gardaí) and a driver for the Dublin Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The four month old kitten was spotted by passing motorists shuddering and alone as cars sped by within several feet.
In celebration of a holiday commemorating the Buddha's call for compassion and kindness, a group of Tibetan Buddhists purchased 535 live lobsters at a Maine seafood market and released them into the cold Atlantic, giving them freedom once again in the belief that karma will ease the suffering in the animals' and humans' future lifetimes.
Chica is a happy border collie that lives on a farm, in Clay County, Indiana. She regularly darts from the house to the barn and weaves through the chicken and cattle. But, Chica's favorite pastime is playing fetch, even though Chica has no eyes.
One of the world's rarest seabirds has returned to remote Ascension Island in the Atlantic 150 years after its colony was wiped out by feral cats. It is the first time the species has bred there since Charles Darwin visited the island in the early 19th century.
In an outcome hailed by environmentalists, European Union lawmakers voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to overhaul the region's troubled fisheries policy to end decades of overfishing. The European Parliament voted 502-to-137 to impose sustainable quotas by 2015 and end the wasteful practice of discarding unwanted fish at sea.
Efforts to conserve Kenya's dwindling population of rhinos is set to get a significant boost when WWF-Kenya hands over 1,000 microchips and 5 scanners to the Kenya Wildlife Service today. The equipment valued at over KES 1.3 million will be instrumental in strengthening active rhino monitoring. Vital to outsmarting the poachers who are getting more sophisticated in their approach, the deployment of specialized rhino horn tracking systems will allow for 100% traceability of every rhino horn and live animal within Kenya
A five year plan to shore up dwindling populations of eastern Steller sea lions, the threatened species that roams from Alaska to California has succeeded. NOAA Fisheries announced last week it will be delisting the animal as a threatened species, making it the first to achieve recovery since the North Pacific gray whale was taken off NOAA's endangered list in 1994.
One day, 500 animals, 14 private planes, 120 rescue organizations, 100's of volunteers, 30,000 air miles, 11 destinations -- and many, many happy tails. December 6 was the big day for Wings of Rescue, the non-profit that is making Christmas dreams come true for hundreds of dogs in high kill shelters, bringing them to live in new fur-ever homes in its 3rd Annual Holiday Airlift.
Five days before Christmas, when Diane Agricola arrived at work in Glendale, Ohio, people gathered around the nativity scene next door where there was an injured dog curled up in the hay around the manger. The office workers named him Gabrielle, and persevered to find him medical care.
Crew members aboard the navy warship USS Rentz recently traded in their anti-organized-crime hats to become wildlife protectors for a few hours, rescuing a group of helpless sea turtles caught in a tangle of netting.
When dozens of white sturgeon began washing up dead on the banks of British Columbia's Fraser River in the mid-1990s, some feared that North America's largest freshwater fish could be headed toward extinction. But now, thanks to an alliance of government agencies, environmentalists, aboriginal groups, and fishing interests, the sturgeon has been spurred to a robust recovery in the lower river.
A savvy dog helped save a man's life and fought off a mugger just a month after being taken in by new owners. The newly-adopted 11-year-old Jack Russell also spotted a man who had collapsed in a diabetic coma and pulled her owner to him, leading paramedics to say the dog probably 'saved the man's life'.
Some fish tales are hard to believe. But Tom Satre has the photos to back it up. He was out with a charter group on his 62-foot fishing vessel when four black-tailed deer swam directly toward his boat. They circled the boat, looking directly at us. They looked distressed.
A man says he is lucky to be alive after an attack by a mountain lion Monday morning while he was hiking in California. After a mountain lion pounced on him, a mother bear came from behind and jumped on the cat, tearing its grip from the man's backpack.
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