Aussies Bicker Over How to Murder Toads

Aussie posted death video

(NEWSER) - An Aussie woman has been sentenced to 180 hours of community service for slicing the head off a mouse with a steak knife and posting a video of its 40-second death on Facebook. The 23-year-old woman pleaded guilty to animal cruelty. A second enemy of animals faced charges the same day of torturing and blowing up five possums. He's being held behind bars pending his sentencing later this month, AP reports. More»

Images of slaughterhouse cruelty horrify nation

(NEWSER) - Australia has banned the export of live cattle to Indonesia amid a public outcry over cruelty in the Islamic country's slaughterhouses. Horrific images broadcast on Australian TV last week showed cattle being whipped, kicked and beaten before painful slaughter. Some cows were left to bleed to death after repeated clumsy cuts to the throat. The Australian government is suspending exports until Indonesia implements safeguards against cruelty, reports the BBC. Australia exports more than half a million cattle to Indonesia each year, and the move is a major blow to the nation's cattle industry. More»

Animal-rights activists not amused by stunt

(AP) - Turns out that killing and eating a rat on I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here was a bad idea on many levels—including the animal cruelty charges that two contestants are now facing. Series winner and chef Gino D'Acampo and actor Stuart Manning are facing charges in Australia after animal-rights activists filed a complaint, reports the AP . More»

(NEWSER) - An Australian man has been hospitalized with burns over 20% of his body after he burst into flames when Tasered by police, reports the Sydney Morning Herald reports. Police say they had no choice but to use the stun gun on the man—a known gas-sniffer and violent offender—when he charged them carrying a container of fuel and a lighter as they responded to a call in a remote Aboriginal community. More»

Rare turtle, lizards among 13 reptiles killed by 7-year-old

(NEWSER) - A 7-year-old boy snuck into an Australian zoo on Wednesday and killed 13 animals, the BBC reports. The child jumped a fence and evaded security cameras to gain access to the Alice Springs Reptile Center, where he bashed three lizards with rocks and fed 10 other animals, some of them rare specimens, to the zoo's crocodile. More»