PHOTO COLLECTION: Halloween Costumes Pets

Cubans searching for a better future leave their pets behind

HAVANA (AP) — Balto, Pepa and Mami were among the lucky ones. After being abandoned by their owners who left Cuba — or simply couldn’t care for them anymore — the dogs were rescued by animal rights activists on the island, who fed them, sterilized them and found them a new...

Activists risk their lives to rescue animals in areas of Lebanon hit by Israeli airstrikes

BEIRUT (AP) — Hours after an Israeli strike destroyed a three-story building in Beirut, killing at least 10 people, Maggie Sharawi received a telephone call from a person living nearby saying that the attack had killed a cat that had several kittens. While civil defense members...

Figures and Dobson trade jabs in testy debate, Here are the key takeaways

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Congressional hopefuls Shomari Figures and Caroleene Dobson clashed in a contentious debate Thursday, exchanging verbal jabs over each other's background and sparring over abortion, immigration and the economy. Figures, a Democrat, and Dobson, a Republican,...

Bring your pets to church, Haitian immigrant priest tells worshippers. 'I am not going to eat them.'

CONCORD, N.H. (RNS) — As pet lovers gathered in a church garden here Saturday (Oct. 5) with dogs and photographs for the annual Blessing of the Animals, they were greeted with an assurance unlike any in years past. “I say: Bring your pet. Bring your dog and cat. I am a Haitian,...

Animal welfare advocates will plead with Texas lawmakers to help cities control stray pet population

McALLEN, Texas (AP) — The phone calls at Yaqui Animal Rescue were non-stop. On the other end of the phone were requests to help with abandoned puppies or pick up stray dogs roaming the streets. The Rio Grande Valley ranch used to temporarily house and care for animals was getting hourly requests...

A man in south Lebanon cares for pets left behind as residents flee Israeli strikes

BEIRUT (AP) — A dog clings to Hussein Hamza inside a car as he pans his camera around to show the aftermath of an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon. “Poor thing. Look at this, he’s clinging to me out of fear,” Hamza says in the video he posted online. “A missile hit...

Top Haitian official denounces false claim, repeated by Trump, that immigrants are eating pets

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A strange moment in American politics paid a visit to the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday, brought there by a top Haitian official. Edgard Leblanc Fils, the president of Haiti’s transitional council, spoke to world leaders about gang violence in his...

Haiti says it supports a UN peacekeeping mission to fight the country's violent gangs

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The president of Haiti’s transitional presidential council announced Thursday that he supports a U.N. peacekeeping mission to fight gang violence still overwhelming authorities. It was the first public support announced by a Haitian government...

Democrats try to censure Rep. Clay Higgins for slandering Haitians in social media post

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats attempted Wednesday to quickly censure a Republican congressman who slandered Haitian immigrants in a post he made on social media, but GOP leadership stamped out the effort. Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana described Haitians in racist terms...