Animals

The suspect who allegedly shot Lady Gaga's dog walker was accidentally released from jail ... and the L.A. Sheriff's Department is investigating how such a blunder could occur.

19-year-old James Howard Jackson was released Wednesday. Jail records simply say  "dismissed." The Sheriff's department says Jackson was the beneficiary of a clerical error.

Jackson had appeared in an L.A. courtroom Tuesday ... and somehow got released the following day.

The LASD Major Crimes Bureau is now trying to find Jackson .... they're asking anyone with info to contact the Sheriff's Dept.

As we reported, Jackson was in custody for attempted murder in connection with the shooting of Lady Gaga's dog walker, Ryan Fisher, and the theft of two of the singer's French Bulldogs.

Ryan suffered a collapsed lung and serious mobility issues and is still enduring the physical and emotional aftereffects of the shooting.

"Hunger Games" actress Jena Malone acted fast to help an innocent dog who was being abused at the side of the road by his owner ... and other bystanders joined her cause, unleashing a brutal beatdown on the animal abuser.

The whole thing went down Tuesday near Sunset Blvd. in L.A. when Jena and others witnessed the attack. She told NBC LA she chased the man as he abused the dog, signaling for others to help.

Jena says 5 men joined in, and restrained the abuser, but not before kicking the crap out of him first.

Cops eventually showed up, taking the pup -- named Champ -- to an animal hospital ... he suffered from a fractured rib, broken bones in his hind legs and a fracture in the right paw.

Jena posted a series of tweets about the incident, saying while she wishes it didn't have to end in a "brawl," she is grateful Champ is ok.

Turns out the man abusing Champ wasn't his actual owner, and he has reunited with his actual family thanks to a microchip last week. The dog is still in the hospital and will be undergoing surgery.

Drew Barrymore, brace yourself, because a dude from down under may have validated what you saw years ago!!!

A guy named Alex Tan was strolling on an Australian beach when he came upon something weird ... something "you see when people claim that they found aliens."

Whatever it is ... it's dead.

Tan thought it might be a possum ... or an extraterrestrial. So far no one has stepped forward to crack the mystery. It really doesn't look like anything we've seen before, so who knows?

He posted his find, and people were quick to respond. Maybe the best comment, "Experts say it tastes like chicken."

One famous feline is helping other animals in need ... raising $10k for animal relief in Ukraine!

Stepan the cat, whose Instagram account Loveyoustepan has 1.2 million followers, started collecting money over PayPal last week, looking to donate to 5 different animal charities in Ukraine ... as of Monday, they've raised $10,035!

The five charities -- Happy Paw, UAnimals, Mykolaiv Zoo, XII Months and Plyushka -- will help in a variety of ways, providing aid to animals in Ukraine affected by the war.

Stepan and co. have been documenting their journey, leaving Kharkiv and fleeing to France. They were woken up at the end of February to explosions that shook their windows ... seeing neighboring houses burnt before their very eyes.

Their house remained untouched for an entire week, until a shell flew into their neighbor's balcony, affecting their building. After escaping to France, they started the fundraiser, asking those able to help to donate what they could.

FYI, this isn't an ordinary cat ... he's caught the eyes of millions, including Britney Spears, who even reposted the kitty on her social media.

Stepan was rescued when he was 1 month old and has lived in Ukraine his whole life. He went viral on TikTok in 2019, appearing with his famous glass of red wine with Stevie Wonder's "I Just Called to Say I Love You" playing in the background.

The so-called "gay" dog that was given up by its owners over perceived homosexual behavior now has a new home -- and that pad is very LGBTQ-friendly ... as is his new name!

North Carolina's Steve Nichols tells TMZ ... he and his longtime partner, John, adopted Fezco Tuesday after hearing the story about him getting abandoned by his former human parents ... all because they caught him humping another male pooch.

Nichols says they felt an immediate connection to Fezco, as he explains both he and John have faced discrimination in their own lives. So, they applied ... and were actually chosen.

Now, get this ... Nichols says they've actually gone ahead and rebranded Fezco with a new doggy tag, now calling him "Oscar" instead of his old moniker. We're told they chose that to honor the Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde -- who was also gay.

It's probably for the best, because Nichols tells us his new pet was apparently not well taken care of by his previous owners ... saying the dog wasn't neutered, and had heart worms -- which he's taking care of now by sending Oscar straight to the vet, where he'll be for a bit.

Nichols says the application wanted to make sure that whoever would embrace Oscar would be committed to nursing him back to health, and both he and John certainly are. Word of Oscar's availability came courtesy of WCCB's Morgan Fogarty, who broke the news.

Looks like Oscar will have some company ... the couple already have a furry friend named Harry, who's a Terrier-Chihuahua mix. They expect their two boys will get along just fine.

A huge gator with only three feet invaded a Florida golf course this past weekend ... and somehow, the golfers who were near the mini-beast didn't even flinch!!

The Jurassic Park-like scene took place on a hole in Bonita Bay ... and video of the creature's trek across the grass, shot by a witness on the course, is surreal.

In the footage, you can see a gator who's missing its right front foot plodded along the turf while several golfers in the distance acted as if there was nothing going on.

People behind the camera, though, gawked at the gator as it slowly moved -- with multiple noting its missing foot.

Of course, gators on courses down in Florida are hardly new -- PGA Tour players have had to maneuver shots around them for years.

In fact, back in 2020, an absolute unit of a gator was spotted near a hole in Naples.

This is actually a really sad story so hold the chuckles ... a North Carolina dog was abandoned and sent to an animal shelter because its owner thought the pooch was gay.

Fezco is held up at the shelter in Stanly County after his owners caught him humping another male hound.

Of course, the owners' reaction is absurd ... dogs do this for dominance, and even if Fezco was gay, so what?

The shelter has posted Fezco's story on Facebook, assuring prospective owners he's a good boy and kind to people and his peers alike.

The 5-year-old doggie will almost certainly get a home ... and according to WCCB TV, applications are apparently flooding in.

Rick Ross's massive estate is starting to look more like a legit ranch ... adding 2 full-grown buffalos to the property.

Ya heard that right! On Friday, Ross was gifted TWO giant buffalos from his business partners at Ethika, the clothing and underwear company. The animals were delivered to his Georgia property -- which he's officially deemed the "Promise Land."

Darius Burton, director of brand operations at Ethika tells TMZ … “We are gifting Ross these Buffalo after a conversation at his birthday party back in January. I wanted to get him a giraffe but he wasn’t ready for that commitment so he said let’s start smaller, like a cow. I said nah, everyone has cows, I want you to have something nobody in your state has, I’m getting you a Buffalo.”

We're told one is a 5-year-old buffalo that weighs a hefty 2000 lbs. and stands 6'2. The other is a 700-lb. heifer who is just over a year old. Ross has already renamed the first 'Timbuktu' and it sounds like he's still taking suggestions for the second.

Check out the video! We're told, Ross' new furry friends hail all the way from Arkansas ... taking a 10-hour journey before being delivered directly to the rapper's Atlanta area home.

This is the latest addition to Rick's growing farm which includes 4 horses and a bull ... and Darius tells us the company is already looking to gift him that giraffe for Christmas.

Ricky seems to be absolutely ecstatic about this gift. He says this is something he spoke into existence and wanted his whole life. In a video on Instagram, he can be seen talking to the buffalos saying, "I love you" and welcoming them to their new home which is on about 235 acres of land.

Traffic jams happen in Costa Rican jungles too, or at least they do when a zip-lining kid suddenly crashes into ... a freakin' sloth!!!

Ya gotta see this video ... the kid hops on the zip line, and starts to pick up some serious speed, when about 12 seconds into his journey he slams into a sloth that's also moving down the cable -- but, naturally, at a sloth's pace.

The boy comes to a screeching and jarring halt in a head-to-head collision ... and the sloth hangs on for dear life.

Everyone looks a little shaken up, but no one appears to be seriously injured, though the sloth seems a little ticked off at the humans before slowly keeping it moving along the zip line.

The incident went down Sunday in La Fortuna, Costa Rica ... an area known for its zip lines and suspended bridges which offer views of lakes and volcanoes, and apparently up-close encounters with sloths.