Looks like a dog grabbed Paul Casey’s ball and ran off with it. The article doesn’t mention how this is handled in play-- does he get a free drop where it was when the dog grabbed it? Is he SOL; does he have to take a penalty stroke and replay the shot?
What if, say, an alligator was close enough to the ball that playing the shot would risk the player’s health?
a.k.a “the seagull clause” (youtube link)
We had a caribou rule when I lived in Alaska. If the ball fell in a caribou track, you got a free drop.
Golf is all about rules. Of course there are rules about that!
From here.
Why oh why didn’t anyone tell Chubbs about that rule?!?!
This thread reminds me of a brilliant Wodehouse golf story (well, they all are, but this one is my favourite - can’t remember the title though!) about two golfers who agree to settle who gets to ask a lady for her hand in marriage by playing a golf “hole” with the first tee at the golf course as the start and a hotel in the town some miles away as the hole. Sample dialogue:
“What are you playing?”
“1,173. We got into a casual dog.”
“A casual dog?”
“Yes, it picked up my ball in its mouth after I played my 576th and ran almost back to the forest.”
No doubt that rule was different in Wodehouse’s day!
From that link:
So you only get relief if the animal is poisonous or life-threatening. How are you at identifying which snakes are venemous and which are not?
And are fire ants really poisonouse or life-threatening, given that the USGA does allow a free drop away from them?
We once played where there was an alligator sunbathing on the tee. I suppose that means you have to take a free drop in the rough near the tee. Tough to hit a driver from there.
This in a sport that requires its players to haul around a bag of clubs? Golf players must be a bunch of wimps if they can’t handle a rattlesnake or alligator! 
Bees and fire ants might be slightly more problematic.
QFT.
Shouldn’t the assistant groundskeeper be in charge of removing problem animals, by any means necessary?