Crufts people aren't my tribe but if I could get a little weirder

Dogs, Riverdance, bhangra. It’s hard to tell what’s going on. But in the end I feel almost at home AtBirmingham’s National Exhibition Centre, a woman dressed as Lawrence of Arabia has just placed a plastic palm tree in the middle of the arena before going to retrieve her dog. Moments later, the music starts and the woman begins a vaguely Middle-Eastern dance while her...

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Copycat culture: is it wrong to clone a beloved dead pet?

Barbra Streisand has revealed that she has created copies of her dog – but the ethics should give others paws for thought Barbra Streisand has revealed that she had two clones made of her dog Samantha after her beloved coton de tulear died last year. This follows the fashion designer Diane von Furstenburg cloning her dog two years ago. Although pet...

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Woof! Watching Isle of Dogs with a cinema full of canines

They were howling in delight at a pooch-friendly screening of Wes Anderson’s new film in Edinburgh Scruffy, a sociable yellow labrador, enjoys lying on the couch watching westerns (because of the horses) and Match of the Day (because of the ball), but is only now, at the age of 10, making his debut trip to the cinema. The reason? To attend a pooch-friendly preview...

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Therapy, Mozart, play zones: it's a Spanish police dog's life

Madrid’s police dogs to be given heated beds and music therapy to lower stress levels Madrid’s 22 police dogs will be provided with heated beds and music therapy sessions designed to reduce stress when they move into their new kennel this week. The three-month makeover of their home is designed to improve the animals’ health, a spokesman said. In what is described as...

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Horse fly-tipping: why are animals being left to die?

Overbreeding means horses are cheap to buy, but they remain expensive to keep. This has led to a spike in cases of them being discarded, according to the RSPCA The imaginative gulf is jaw-dropping. It starts with a kitsch tween dream of horse ownership – or ideas of cashing in on the breeders’ market. It ends with a horse dumped on a garbage heap. The RSPCA has...

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Million Paws Walk 2018: share your photos and videos

Thousands take part in the RSPCA’s fund-raiser for animals in need. If you or your dog are walking, we’d like to hear from you Now in its 24th year, the annual Million Paws Walk is the RSPCA’s largest fundraiser and helps the animal welfare charity rescue thousands of animals a year. Dogs of all different breeds, sizes and colours, and their owners are invited...

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Show Dogs under fire for scene which 'grooms children for sexual abuse'

Rottweiler groping in family comedy normalises ‘unwanted genital touching to its child audience’, according to US’s National Center on Sexual Exploitation Show Dogs, a new family comedy about a police hound who goes undercover to infiltrate a dog show, has come in for criticism over a scene which some feel sends a troubling message to impressionable audiences. In...

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Pet food is an environmental disaster – are vegan dogs the answer?

A quarter of the impact of meat production comes from the pet-food industry. Has the time come to change what we feed our dogs and cats? Animal microbiologist Holly Ganz cannot talk about the pet feeding regime known as biologically appropriate raw food without laughing. The increasingly popular diet is known by its unfortunate acronym, Barf. “It’s bizarrely named,” she...

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Is Russia killing stray dogs ahead of the World Cup?

After the mass culls before the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, animal rights activists in the World Cup cities of Sochi and Yekaterinburg fear history could be repeating itself Earlier this year, Russia’s deputy prime minister, Vitaly Mutko, met with animal rights activist to discuss their fears that stray dogs would be exterminated ahead of the football World Cup. Mutko...

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Paw outcome? New Zealand council proposes banning all cats

Under ‘pest plan’ Omaui residents will not be allowed to replace cats when they die A regional council in New Zealand has proposed banning all domestic cats in an attempt to protect native animals. Environment Southland’s “pest plan” calls for all domestic cats in the region to be neutered, microchipped and registered. Then, when a cat dies, residents would...

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Want a flat in the Doghouse? You'll need a four-legged friend

New-build apartment block in Denmark has communal dog washing facility in the gardens andlords having mostly failed to get the memo about dogs being man’s best friend, a Danish developer is building an apartment block exclusively for dog owners. The three-story complex in Frederikssund, Zealand, about 45km from Copenhagen, should be finished within the next 12 months...

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Experience: I run a hospice for animals

I provide care for however long they have left, so they do not have to take their final steps alone. The last day we had with Osha the bullmastiff was hard, although perfect for her. We took her for her favourite walk, gave her a meal of her favourite food (pasta) and then lay in the garden in the sun with her, feeding her fruit chews, which she loved. Then the vet came...

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