Free Republic

Communities around China have ordered their residents to stop keeping pets - or risk getting them culled - amid fears that animals could also catch the new coronavirus that has killed 213 in less than three weeks, MailOnline can reveal. Residential committees, village officials and companies from various provinces and municipalities issued the strict order to locals after receiving instructions from their superiors to tackle the epidemic, it has emerged. One village in Hebei urged all households to 'deal with' their pets within five days, otherwise officials would 'handle' them altogether; while another residential committee in Shaanxi instructed people to...

The three residents of a St. Croix Falls, Wis., home where nearly 400 cats were removed by authorities last month have each been charged with three misdemeanors. Dorothy Weinhardt, 86, her daughter, Jean Bloomquist, 47, and son-in-law, Wayne Bloomquist, 52, were charged Thursday with mistreating animals and providing inadequate sanitary conditions and ventilation at their house at 209 S. River St. According to the criminal complaint, the animal mistreatment count stems from the discovery by health and public safety investigators of a live adult cat and kitten that were placed on the second floor of the house in a small...

A German cat weighing six times the normal weight is so fat that it cannot take more than four steps without getting exhausted. Now officials at a Berlin animal shelter are having trouble finding a new owner for six-year-old Mikesch, after it was taken away from his elderly owner. The man, who was himself taken to a nursing home, had been feeding the 18.5 kilo cat two kilos of mince each day. Groggy moggy ... Mikesch, the 18.5kg puss who tucked away a couple of kilos of mince a day. Photo: AFP "You can call it cruelty to animals," said...