Boxed-up pup

A US woman tried to post a live puppy more than 1,100 miles.

Stacey Champion attempted to deliver four-month-old Guess from Minneapolis to Atlanta, Georgia via air-mail as a present for a child, writing on the package: "This is for your 11th birthday. It's what you wanted."

Stunned postal workers opened the parcel when they saw it moving and heard panting - and were shocked to see the dog emerge from the box, which had no air holes.

Police say it would have taken two days for the delivery to arrive at its destination, in which time Guess would died of suffocation, starvation, dehydration or been frozen as the plane reached a high altitude.

Stacey, 39, had told the post office clerk to "be careful" with the package and has subsequently been charged with animal cruelty.