Rescued! Animals commonly saved by humans

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Charlie Riedel/AP

A brown pelican is cleaned at the Fort Jackson Wildlife Rehabilitation Center at Buras, La., May 15, 2010. The bird was rescued after being exposed to an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico caused by the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil platform.

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Colin Seddon/Scottish SPCA/AP

An orphaned baby squirrel named Squirrelly is syringe-fed by wildlife assistant Sheelagh McAllister at the Scottish SPCA's National Wildlife Rescue Centre in Fishcross, Alloa, Scotland, May 2012. Squirrelly was rescued when he was a week old after being picked up by a dog in woodland in Inverness, but after two months the young squirrel was released back into the wild fully fit and healthy.

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Punit Paranjpe PP/Reuters

Madhubala stands inside a camp of the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) after she was rescued by the society in Bombay, March 17, 2004. SPCA officials said the elephants were used by the owners for begging on city streets. India has nearly 30,000 captive and wild elephants, mostly in the northeastern parts of the country.

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Adrees Latif/Reuters

Kaew, a 14-year-old female orangutan, is treated for injuries at an animal rescue center in Thailand's Ratchaburi Province, west of Bangkok, Sept. 19, 2006. Nearly 50 trafficked orangutan, rescued in 2004 from a Thai amusement park, were returned to their native Indonesia.

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Reuters

A pair of scarlet macaws perch on a tree in Bolivia's Machia Park in Villa Tunari in the Bolivian Amazon jungle, southeast of La Paz, Aug. 17, 2005. The 38-hectare park, created in 1992, is home to nearly 1,000 animals, all rescued from captivity. It aims to readapt the animals to their natural habitats and to release them to the wild.

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Mindaugas Kulbis/AP

Starving horses stand in heavy snow at a farm near Vilnius, Lithuania, April 5, 2013. Veterinarians are fighting to save dozens of horses found without adequate food or shelter on a farm near Vilnius, Lithuania's capital.

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Carlos Jasso/Reuters

A Mexican leaf frog (Pachymedusa), which had been rescued with other animals while being trafficked illegally, is held at the Federal Wildlife Conservation Center on the outskirts of Mexico City, May 20, 2011. According to Mexico's Federal Wildlife Conservation Department, at least 2,500 different animals are rescued annually.

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Paraguay's Environmental Ministry/AP

Two rescued baby Blue-fronted Amazon parrots, whose scientific name is Amazona aestiva, are held at the Teniente Agripino Enciso National Park in Paraguay, near the border with Bolivia, Dec. 15, 2011. Stealing wild animals and plants is a crime in Paraguay, punishable by up to eight years in prison. The baby parrots are being cared for by government biologists and will be returned to the wild when they can fly.

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Gregory Bull/AP

A Guadalupe fur seal (r.) and a group of California sea lions look on as SeaWorld animal rescue team member Heather Ruce feeds a California sea lion at a rescue facility Feb. 26, 2013, in San Diego. Area rescue crews are seeing a higher-than-average amount of stranded sea lions this year, probably because food is scarce, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

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Fernando Vergara/AP

A young brotogeris jugularis, or parakeet, also known as 'bronceado,' perches on the palm of a veterinarian at an animal shelter west of Bogota, Colombia, Feb. 18, 2013. Sponsored by Bogota's Ministry of Environment, the shelter receives between 3,000 and 3,500 wild animals a year – some seized from poachers and others found hurt. Seventy percent of rescued animals are reintroduced to their habitats, and the rest are sent to zoos around the country.

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Heng Sinith/AP

A Siamese crocodile lives at Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center in Phnom Tamao village, Takoe Province, south of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Nov. 17, 2009. Elephants, rhinos, sharks, and manta rays are among the animals that could be getting more international protection as a result of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

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Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press/AP

A barred owl is wrapped in a blanket at Hope for Wildlife rehabiliation and education centre in Seaforth, Nova Scotia, Jan. 3, 2011. The owl is being treated after being caught in a rabbit snare. Hope for Wildlife opened the province's first wildlife veterinary hospital, which allows injured animals to receive medical care without being transported off-site.

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Christopher Fryer/News and Tribune/AP

Richard Mills, co-owner of Buck Creek Valley Animal Rescue in Elizabeth, Ind. preps Willy, a Tennessee walking horse, before embarking on a nearly 2,500 mile journey along the Lewis and Clark trail, to raise awareness and funds for neglected and abused horses.

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Mary Knox Merrill/The Christian Science Monitor

Les Stocker is covered in hedgehogs he helped to rehabilitate at Tiggywinkles in Haddenham, England, Oct. 30, 2006. His hobby of helping injured hedgehogs has become a world-reknown hospital for animals – from hedgehogs to deer and birds. Asked why he loves hedgehogs, Stocker says, 'They're a tough little animal....They fight to live. We're trying to give them a chance to live.'

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John Raoux/AP

After months of rehabilitation, one of four female manatees under the care of the SeaWorld Orlando Animal Rescue team, is ready to return to the waters of Eddy Creek at Canaveral National Seashore Park, June 18, 2013, in Titusville, Fla. All four rehabilitated animals, ranging from 400 to 775 pounds, have been medically cleared for return to their natural habitats.

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Will Vragovic/The Tampa Bay Times/AP

Bengali explores a new addition to Big Cat Rescue's sanctuary for exotic cats, the 2.5-acre Vacation Rotation enclosure, July 30, 2013 in Tampa, Fla. The new enclosure allows the staff at Big Cat Rescue to rotate cats in and out of the large habitat to let them experience new sights and smells, explore new trees and foliage, and enjoy new platforms, dens, and toys.

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Schalk van Zuydam/AP

A rescue volunteers pours water over a whale as a woman (l.) covers its blow hole at Noordhoek Beach near Cape Town, South Africa, March 24, 2013. Police and other rescue workers hosed down surviving whales at Noordhoek Beach to try to keep them alive.

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Alexander Zemlianichenko Jr/AP

A bear cub walks inside the forest enclosure of the International Fund for Animal Welfare Bear Rescue Center, near the village of Bubonitsy, northwest of Moscow, Oct. 12, 2012. Russian authorities are working to crack down on den hunting – the stalking of a mother bear with her young during winter hibernation, which leaves hundreds of cubs orphaned each year.

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Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters

Rescued stray dogs rest at a temporary animal shelter outside Yangon, Myanmar, Aug. 16, 2013. The shelter was created by an activist who rescued more than 150 stray dogs that had been captured from the streets and were due to be traded to China.

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Jim Weber/The Commercial Appeal/AP

Student Shauni Cowan holds 12-week-old Arya, one of a dozen puppies provided by Real Good Dog Rescue, a foster care network for homeless dogs, during Rhodes' Puppy Study Break at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tenn., April 29, 2013.

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Carrie Antlfinger/AP

Daniel, a cat with two extra toes on each foot, at the Milwaukee Animal Rescue Center in Greendale, Wis. In 2011, the shelter started asking for $26 donations – or $1 for each of the cat's toes – for a new building after it learned that its rent was doubling. Center owner Amy Rowell says it raised about $120,000 and bought a Greenfield building, with Daniel as the mascot.

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Bob Wellinski/The LaPorte Herald-Argus/AP

Savanah and Diva greet each other while waiting to have their photos taken with Santa during the LaPorte County Small Animal Shelter's 21st annual Pet Photos with Santa, Dec. 15, 2012, in LaPorte, Ind.