LONDON — Elephants' legs work like a four-wheel drive vehicle, making them probably unique in the animal kingdom, scientists said on Tuesday.
Their "four-leg-drive" system means power is applied independently to each limb. All other four-legged animals are thought to have "rear-leg-drive", in which the hind legs are used for acceleration while the front legs are used more for braking.

After a decade of driving dogs, caravanning cats and ferrying ferrets, in which 660,000 pet journeys were made using pet passports, the UK’s Pet Travel Scheme is celebrating its 10th birthday. It was 28 February 2000 when owners were first able to travel to and from the UK without placing their pets in quarantine, as long as they fulfilled certain important disease control criteria. A pug called Frodo Baggins was the first animal to travel with a pet passport and since then the UK has shown itself to be animal friendly with around 60 per cent of the pets travelling under the scheme belonging to UK owners. Animals from Ireland, France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands make up about another 20 per cent. The scheme was set up in response to growing demand from owners to travel with their pets and the declining risk of disease allowed these changes to be made. In 2004 the European Union followed the UK’s lead and introduced a similar system for all Member States which has also proved very successful.

The veterinary profession was well represented at a meeting of key stakeholders brought together to discuss the next steps on dog breeding. The British Veterinary Association (BVA), British Small Animal Veterinary Association (BSAVA) and Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) together with welfare organisations, the Kennel Club, Defra, and the Scottish Government considered the three major dog breeding reports by APGAW, RSPCA and Professor Bateson. The group agreed to work on a proposal to set up an Advisory Council on the Welfare Issues of Dog Breeding, as recommended by Professor Bateson.

A high profile report which suggests possible links between meat and cancer has been found to be significantly flawed by leading academics.
 
The World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) 2007 report has been consistently cited as proof of a perceived link between red and processed meat consumption and risk of colorectal cancer (CRC). However, despite now privately acknowledging a number of errors and that these will be taken into consideration as part of an ongoing review, the charity has said it is not planning to inform the public and policymakers directly of the flaws. 
 
Both Dr Stewart Truswell, of the University of Sydney, and Dr Dominik Alexander, of Exponent, whose review was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, have highlighted a number of errors and omissions in the WCRF review of red and processed meat and CRC.

A new publication into the benefits of spironolactone, the active ingredient in Prilactone® manufactured by CEVA Animal Health, has supported the use of the product as part of first-line therapy for the treatment of dogs with congestive heart failure caused by mitral heart disease. The double-blind placebo-controlled study1 involved 212 dogs on either spironolactone or a placebo, in addition to conventional therapy including an ACE inhibitor and furosemide. It revealed that over a 15 month period 25.5% of dogs either died, were euthanased or severely worsened in the placebo group compared to 10.8% in the spironolactone group.