EMB ERJ 170/175 ER/LR
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Hazardous Material Violation; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Weight And Balance
Flight Crew Returned To Gate
Five minutes prior to departure; the ramp crew informed us that they were adding a live animal to the cargo and two pieces of cargo totaling 98 pounds.  We waiting for the updated cargo load manifest to load via the acars.  After a few minutes we switched to manual mode and selected the new cargo load report.  Everything came back good; so we pushed off the gate and proceeded to taxi the runway.We were number 3 for departure when the Tower called us and said that the company wanted us to return to the gate.  At this point I called operations to make sure that this was correct.  They confirmed they wanted us to return to the gate because a live animal and dry ice had been loaded into the forward cargo together.  I informed operations that we never received a notification via acars or any other method that we were transporting dry ice; as required by regulations.We proceeded to return to the gate; where the ramp manager then attempted to move the dry ice to the aft cargo; at which time I said both the live animal and the dry ice can only be carried in the forward cargo; so he would have to choose which one we would take.  They then completely removed the dry ice and we continued to ZZZ with only the live animal in the forward cargo without further incident. We initially did all of this without reopening the main cabin door; however operations then insisted that the main cabin door be opened so that a representative could come on board and apologized to the passengers for the inconvenience and delay.
E175 Captain reported a live animal and dry ice were loaded into the same cargo compartment; contrary to company policy.