Wasted Daily News

RACINE, Wis. – A Maltese dog named Max is headed home to Florida after he was spotted in Chicago — 1,000 miles from where he vanished.

Richard Gonzalez had reported a pet theft after Max disappeared several months ago from his daughter’s yard in Brandon, Fla.

Gonzalez says he thought that Max would never get far. But the pooch was identified in Chicago by an implanted microchip. Read the rest of this entry →

TAIPEI (Reuters) – Police in Taiwan served a lonely man cake and sang happy birthday after arresting him for stealing a goose to celebrate on his own, an officer in charge said on Friday.

Police in the southern township of Neipu treated the 49-year-old suspect, surnamed Lee, on Thursday after they caught him making off with the bird from a betel nut plantation, said Hsiao Chi-liang, second in command at the local police station. Read the rest of this entry →

ATLANTA – A Delta baggage worker got a bit of a fright before Halloween when she opened a jetliner’s cargo door and found a cheetah running loose amid the luggage. Two cheetahs were being flown in the cargo area of a Boeing 757 passenger flight from Portland, Ore., to Atlanta on Thursday when one escaped from its cage, Delta spokeswoman Betsy Talton said Friday.

“They told us a large animal had gotten out of a container in the cargo hold and they were having to send someone to tranquilize it,” said one passenger, Lee Sentell of Montgomery, Ala. Read the rest of this entry →

If only Goldilocks had a cockapoo.

A 15-pound cocker spaniel-poodle mix named Pawlee scared off a mother bear and her two cubs Sunday morning after they strayed into his owners’ back yard.

Whether his bark was worse than his bite, Pawlee’s tactic worked just fine. These three bears got the hint and took off.

“We had just let him out for the morning and he ran into the yard and started barking his head off,” owner Fran Osiason said.

Osiason said her 9-year-old son, Jacob, went outside to see what the commotion was about and came running back in to report there were bears in the yard. Read the rest of this entry →

A judge has decided that a suburban Seattle woman who registered her Australian shepherd-terrier mix to vote has spent enough time in the legal doghouse.

Jane Balogh (BAY’-loh) had been charged with making a false statement but entered into a plea agreement last year. A King County judge dismissed the charge Monday after Balogh showed that she had paid $240 in court costs and completed community service.

Balogh says she registered her dog Duncan to protest a loophole in the law that she says makes voter registration so easy a nonexistent person could be added to the voter rolls.

She says she made no secret of her action after the fact, telling a number of elected officials she had registered her dog.

And she says Duncan never voted.

Bosnian police have impounded a pigeon after discovering prisoners used it to smuggle drugs into one of the country’s highest security jails, an official said Thursday.

“The guards suspected the animal might be involved in drug smuggling once they noticed four prisoners visibly intoxicated shortly after the pigeon landed on a prison window,” Zenica prison official Josip Pojavnik told AFP.

All four inmates had tested positive for heroin, said Pojavnik, adding disciplinary proceedings had been launched against the inmates. Read the rest of this entry →

The Scottish government has declared war on increasingly aggressive urban seagulls.

The initial battle will be joined in the southwestern town of Dumfries during next spring’s breeding season when a special anti-gull “task force” will seek to destroy nests and drive out the birds.

“Seagulls are a menace to Scottish towns and cities,” said Environment Minister Michael Russell. “They thrive on litter and their aggressive behaviour towards other birds, pets and even people is increasing.” Read the rest of this entry →