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Battersea dogs guzzle 50 tonnes of food
Dog eating
Battersea dogs wolfed down more than 42,000 tins of wet food last year.
Hungry hounds eat the equivalent weight of 12 elephants per year

Lonely hounds at Battersea Dogs and Cats Home wolfed down nearly 50 tonnes of food in 2013 alone, the charity reports. It is the equivalent of four double decker buses, 12 elephants or 660 great Danes.

Battersea fed more than 5,000 dogs last year, getting through 42,384 tins of wet food and 28,672kg of dry food. Not forgetting the 134,000 poo bags staff used to clean up the mess!

Likewise, Battersea cats munched their way through 58,944 pouches of cat food and 1,264kg of cat biscuits.

On average, 13 dogs and eight cats arrived at the rescue home every day in 2013. The charity receives about 1,000 calls each month from people who can no longer care for or afford their pets.

In addition, another 3,451 stray dogs and cats arrived at the charity last year after they were found tied up or wandering the streets.

Battersea recently launched an appeal to raise 1.9m to help build new state-of-the-art kennels for its canine residents.

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Strangles survey seeks views of horse owners

News Story 1
 With Strangles Awareness Week just around the corner (5-11 May), vets are being encouraged to share a survey about the disease with their horse-owning clients.

The survey, which has been designed by Dechra, aims to raise awareness of Strangles and promote best practices to prevent its transmission. It includes questions about horse owners' experiences of strangles, together with preventative measures and vaccination.

Respondents to the survey will be entered into a prize draw to win two VIP tickets to Your Horse Live 2025. To access the survey, click here 

Click here for more...
News Shorts
DAERA to reduce BVD 'grace period'

DAERA has reminded herd keepers of an upcoming reduction to the 'grace period' to avoid BVD herd restrictions.

From 1 May 2025, herd keepers will have seven days to cull any BVD positive or inconclusive animals to avoid restrictions being applied to their herd.

It follows legislation introduced on 1 February, as DAERA introduces herd movement restrictions through a phased approach. Herd keepers originally had 28 days to cull BVD positive or inconclusive animals.

DAERA says that, providing herd keepers use the seven-day grace period, no herds should be restricted within the first year of these measures.

Additional measures, which will target herds with animals over 30 days old that haven't been tested for BVD, will be introduced from 1 June 2025.

More information is available on the DAERA website.