Twenty-three dogs were rescued from a Sheepshead Bay home which had no running water or working heat early this morning. Agents from the ASPCA and Animal Care and Control executed a search warrant in two Sheepshead Bay homes about 8:30 a.m. after receiving reports of an elderly couple hoarding dogs in bad conditions. “It smelled like dog feces and urine,” said neighbor Stacey Krauf. “You could smell it across the street.” more ›

Yesterday life in New York City ground to a halt as New Yorkers pondered the possibility that the next time they ride the subway, there might very well be an opossum snarling under their seats. The story went viral, but it seems none of the online articles have any new information about the animal's fate, beyond what the Times reported. NYPD spokesman Paul Browne told the Times that animal control agents met the train in a subway yard next to the Grand Concourse in the Bronx... but Richard Gentles, the spokesman for Animal Care & Control, tells us, "AC&C was not involved in the removal of an opossum from a subway train on Friday, nor was one delivered to the shelter." more ›

Yesterday's report of a three-foot long corn snake popping up in a Bronx man's bathroom became instant e-mail forwarding fodder, even showing up in Weekly World News with the relatively tame (as compared to Bat Boy) headline of "FIRST BED BUGS, NOW TOILET SNAKES." But investigators are still puzzled as to just how the snake made it up to the 19th floor of the Soundview apartment building. more ›

The sewer gator spotted in Astoria over the weekend is really an 18-inch long caiman (Caiman crocodilus), and was only found near a sewer drain. After being taken in by Animal Care & Control, the one-year-old reptile will be brought to an animal sanctuary in the Poconos. (He's going to love those champagne glass baths!) According to the NY Post, yesterday he was being kept under a 100-watt heat lamp in Brooklyn, where an ACC director theorized on how he could have ended up in Queens. more ›

A 2-year-old pit bull on death row has managed to dodge the lethal injection he was sentenced to after biting a father and daughter in the Bronx. Snoop has been under the watch of the city's Animal Care & Control at a shelter since January, and his secret weapon to staying alive is lawyer Rachel Hirschfeld. more ›

Today on Staten Island, a couple had to call the authorities about a python that found its way onto their property. No one's quite sure where the 10-foot long yellow Albino python came from when it was spotted on the Great Kills driveway, but it's suspected that someone nearby released their pet when the creature became beyond their control. A spokesman for Animal Care and Control told the SI Advance, "[People] get them when they're very young, when they're a foot or two long. They outgrow their enclosure and they get to be too much to handle." Last year alone, the agency brought in 91 snakes—pythons being one of the classifications of snakes that are banned as pets. (In Florida just today, a pet python strangled a two-year-old girl to death.) The Staten Island snake has been put on a a wildlife rehabilitator in Brooklyn until it can be moved to a sanctuary outside the city. That sure beats the fate of one python in Brooklyn—he ended up being peed on! more ›

The raccoon seen in a tree at East 88th Street and 1st Avenue ultimately died after the police tried to capture it. The Post reports the cops "bungled" the raccoon rescue operation, firing tranquilizer darts "deep in its body." more ›

Glowing eyes peering down from trees and from behind gravestones, the night creatures are disrupting the eternal sleep of the dead and driving the living to distraction. Raccoons have proliferated at the famous Green-Wood Cemetery, digging up the grass over graves, eating the flowers left by mourners, and even invading crypts to scavenge for food. more ›