They say no good deed goes unpunished, and this kindhearted North-Carolina woman who took in dozens of abandoned pets as Hurricane Florence ravaged the US state is a prime example of that. She was arrested and is now facing several misdemeanor charges for practicing veterinary medicine without a license.

As Hurricane Florence was getting ready to make landfall in North Caroline, Tammie Hedges decided to turn a warehouse she had been remodeling into a shelter for pets. Pets came from the streets, where they were picked up by volunteers, but also from their owners, who had to evacuate but couldn’t take their animals with them. All in all, she sheltered 27 pets – 17 cats and 10 dogs – during the storm, and also administered some medical treatments to ensure their well-being. But whereas most people considered her actions an act of kindness to animals, local authorities saw them as a violation of the law and charged her with several misdemeanors.

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A South Korean man and the 21 ducklings he has been raising as his children ever since they hatched have been breaking the internet with their incredible bond. A video that recently went viral in the western world shows the cute birds following their “mother” on a mountain hike and listening to his every command.

The middle-aged man, whose name is not revealed in the video, has been taking care of his 21 ducklings ever since they were fertilized eggs, making sure the incubation period went smoothly, and even helping the tiny birds break through their shell when it came time to hatch. He was the first thing they laid eyes on in this world, and he has remained the most important figure in their lives since.

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Scientists at Newcastle University recently discovered three new species of deep-sea snailfish that are so well-adapted to their extreme environment that they would “rapidly melt” if brought to the surface.

The squishy fish were discovered during an international expedition to explore the depths of the Atacama Trench, one of the deepest parts of the Pacific Ocean, located near the coast of Peru. Researchers lowered special cameras to a depth of approximately 7,500 meters, where temperatures are just above freezing and pressures are fire higher than any human could survive. Despite these extreme conditions, the bottom of the Atacama Trench was teeming with life, including three new fish species currently known as the pink, purple and blue Atacama snailfish.

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Austria often gets mistaken for Australia, and tourist shops even have souvenir t-shirts that say “no kangaroos in Austria”, but now that one has been spotted hopping around in the European country, they may need a better line than that.

Police in the small town of Kirchschlag, northern Austria, confirmed multiple sightings of what looked to be a kangaroo hopping through the meadows and forests around the town, over the weekend, and are now actively searching for it. They have also contacted zoos and breeders in the area, but so far no one has claimed responsibility for the mysterious animal.

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Gulspor, a small football club from one of Turkey’s lowest divisions, recently sold 18 of its players in order to buy 10 goats and generate extra income from milk and meat sales.

The club’s president, Kenan Büyükleblebi, told Turkish media that the unusual decision was dictated by lack of funds, as there are virtually no sponsorships or government investments for teams performing in lower leagues. Gulspor sold 18 of its youth players for around 15,000 Turkish lira ($2,600), which was enough to buy 10 goats. It may not seem like a great business decision, but Büyükleblebi claims the club is estimated to generate a yearly profit of 4,000-5,000 lira from the sale of milk and meat. In fact, it plans to build a herd of 140 goats in the next few years.

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A video of a deformed-looking male goat has been doing the round online for over a month, with many referring to the animal as a ‘goat monster’. It turns out he’s actually just a Damascus Goat.

It’s true that the male in this viral video has some exaggerated facial features – disproportionately giant head, freakishly long neck, vaulted skull and weird underbite – but to be fair, the whole of the Damascus breed of goat looks like it should only exist in sci-fi or horror films. Not saying we should judge an animal by its looks alone – in fact Damascus goats are in many ways superior to most of the common-looking breeds – but there’s no arguing the fact that these guys look like they ran face first into a wall at full speed.

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A Long Island family is fighting for the right to keep their pet Golden Retriever Max, after a lending company threatened to have it repossessed unless they make a considerable final payment.

Danielle Cittadino and her family bought Max from the Shake-A-Paw pet store, in Lynbrook , New York, a couple of years ago. The adorable puppy cost $1,200, but the Cittadinos couldn’t afford to pay all of it upfront, so they were offered a financing option from a company called Wags Lending. They checked Danielle’s credit and after she was approved, the Baldwin woman had to fill out a bunch of paperwork, which she admits she didn’t go through thoroughly. She assumed that she was getting a loan, but in reality the contract specified that she wasn’t actually buying Max, but renting him until she paid all the required installments. Now the company is threatening to reposes the dog.

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When you see pictures of this massive cat, you may be forgiven for thinking that the images have been photoshopped. At 33 pounds, Bronson is more than double the weight of the average cat, he looks like a real life version of Garfield, but there’s nothing funny about it. 

Bronson’s size shocked everyone when he was dropped off at the West Michigan Humane Society, after his original owner had died. How had he gotten so big? Staff at the humane society believe that he was fed high-carb kibble multiple times throughout the day, for a long period of time.

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Sombra, a drug-detection dog with the Colombian National Police has been causing such problems for drug cartels that they’ve recently started putting bounties on her head, forcing authorities to move her to a safer airport and have more officers accompanying her on her rounds.

The 6-year-old German shepherd has been a thorn in drug traffickers’ side for quite a while now. Over the past few years, her strong sense of smell has helped Colombian police make over 200 arrests and seize around nine tons of illegal drugs. Sombra, which translates as ‘shadow’ has become somewhat of a hero of the fight against drug cartels, but for the criminals losing money because of her radar-like nose, she is a threat that needs to be eliminated. To that end, the Urabeños, also known as the Gulf Clan, have reportedly put a prize on Sombra’s head, with reports on the reward for killing her varying between 20 and 200 million Colombian pesos ($7,000 and $70,000).

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Most dog owners who lose their beloved pets try to convey just how much they want the returned in the flyers they post, but one Chinese man just let everyone know that if they find his runaway Husky, they can just keep him, because he’s tired of chasing after him.

Last Sunday, Wang Wei, a property agent from Chongqing, was walking his pet dog named Huazhu when the animal spotted another dog, slipped out of its leash and ran after the other canine. Wang ran after his pet, but lost sight of him at one point and just couldn’t find him after that. So he went home and drafted some unusual flyers that he later posted around the area where he lost Huazhu. They basically said that the dog was sort of a canine escape artist and that he was tired of having to constantly run after him, so whoever found him was welcome to keep him.

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Wallace the Great, an 11-year-old rescued mule from Gloucestershire, recently made history by becoming the first ever mule to win an official horse dressage competition in Britain.

Wallace and his trainer, Christie Mclean, had been turned down from official dressage events several times on grounds that he wasn’t a true horse, but a cross between a horse and a donkey, which technically makes him a totally different species, with different chromosomes. However, earlier this month, British Dressage finally ruled in favor of allowing mules to compete in official dressage competitions alongside horses and ponies, as a testament “to inclusion and diversity in dressage, making the sport more accessible to all.” Wallace the Great finally had a chance to prove that when it came to dressage, mules could be just as good, if not better than purebred horses, and on July 22nd he did just that, winning his first British Dressage competition.

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A vegan pet owner from the Gold Coast, in Australia, has been criticized for putting his cat on a diet that matches his beliefs and claiming that she’s actually thriving after switching to veganism.

53-year-old Harry Bolman has been a vegan for the lat 38 years, and after adopting Uma, a five-year-old cat, last year, he decided that the same vegan diet would be perfect for her as well. Bolman has been feeding her vegetables and special vegan cat food, and despite accusations that he is “abusing” and “killing” the feline, he claims that plant-based food is the “healthiest” for cats.

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Miracle Milly, a six-year-old Chihuahua from Puerto Rico, was awarded the title of World’s Most Cloned Dog, by the Guinness Book of Records, after scientists in South Korea created a whopping 49 genetically-identical copies of her.

The controversial Sooam Biotech Research Foundation in Seoul, South Korea, has been creating pet clones since 2006, and last year they approached Vanesa Semler, Milly’s owner about the possibility of creating clones of the adorable pooch to try and solve the genetic mystery that made her special. You see, Mily is no ordinary Chihuahua. She’s held the Guinness record for World’s Smallest Living Dog since 2012, and scientists have been wanting to know exactly what made her so tiny. So in August 2017, Sooam researchers started making clones of Miracle Milly, the number of which has currently reached 49.

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A cafe in Istanbul, Turkey, has been accused of animal cruelty after a video of a young lion nervously pacing back and forth in a narrow glass box inside the venue went viral online.

The owner of Mevzoo, an animal cafe in Istanbul’s Beykoz district has been accused of animal cruelty and abuse after videos of Khaleesi, a one-year-old lion, pacing through a glass box built in the center of the cafe and chasing after a small girl were shared on social media. People were outraged that an endangered wild animal was confined to a space less than a meter wide, which was barely enough for it to turn around, and used as entertainment. And feedback kept getting worse after it was revealed that Mevzoo also uses parrots and other rare birds, caged crocodiles and horses to attract customers.

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An African flamingo that famously escaped Wichita’s Sedgwick County Zoo in 2005 has been on the run ever since. The freedom-loving bird was recently spotted hanging out with a flock of seagulls, in Lavaca Bay, Texas, 700 miles from the zoo it once called home.

The runaway bird is known as ‘No. 492’ because of the number on a plastic band still attached to its leg. Its legendary escape was due to an error by zoo staff who thought his flight wings hadn’t fully developed, so they didn’t bother cutting them. One night, the flamingo took advantage of some strong storm winds and escaped the zoo before staff even got the chance to determine its sex. The long-legged bird has been enjoying its freedom ever since, as the zoo never attempted to recapture it. That would be difficult to do anyway, both because sightings of No. 492 have been rare in the last 14 years, and because it was born in the wild and is wary of approaching humans.

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