![Sport events were cancelled all over NSW but it didn't stop one school event from taking place: Under 13's St ...](/web/20170214120714im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/a/s/j/9/image.related.landscape.460x307.guarjl.png/1486815616940.jpg)
NSW heatwave: 'As bad as it gets'
Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said the situation was as "bad as it gets".
Eryk Bagshaw is a journalist with Fairfax Media
Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said the situation was as "bad as it gets".
More than 246 properties evacuated, 97 flood rescues, 181 families stranded on islands, and tens of millions of dollars in losses to local businesses throughout central NSW. That is the human, emotional and economic toll of a flood that was in some ways, man made.
In all 181 families have now been isolated after the biggest floods in decades hit the central-west of NSW, with no road access, limited communications and dwindling supplies.
A local council says that a farm where rotting dog carcasses were reported is now "in the public interest".
Remarkable footage has emerged of a pair of whales swimming alongside a Western Australian paddle boarder in Esperance on the state's coast.Â
The 20-year-old cleaning up the world's oceans
The NSW Labor party would ban the sale of puppies from pet stores if elected to government in March. Labor leader, Luke Foley, will announce the policy on Saturday along with a ban on large scale puppy farms that limits the amount of breeding dogs to ten per farm.
WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES Animal welfare authorities are at a loss to explain the cruelty that is injuring and killing some of Australia's most loved animals.
Pressure is mounting on the NSW government to declare bipartisan support for the creation of an Office of Animal Welfare.
A puppy farm in northern NSW has been investigated by RSPCA NSW after animal activists claimed that they had found evidence of dogs living in "appalling conditions."
Search pagination
Save articles for later.
Subscribe for unlimited access to news. Login to save articles.
Return to the homepage by clicking on the site logo.