Exclusive: Number of such dogs that have been dumped rose from eight in 2020 to 582 in 2023, RSPCA says

They may be lauded in the show ring, adored by celebrities, and feature in myriad adverts, but the number of French bulldogs being abandoned has risen sharply in recent years, data suggests.

According to the RSPCA, the number of such dogs in England and Wales that have been dumped rose from eight in 2020 to 582 in 2023 – an increase of more than 7,000% in three years.

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DNA My Dog received human genetic sample and identified it as a malamute, shar-pei and labrador, according to news station

A pet company has twice sent back dog breed results for human swab samples, prompting doubts surrounding the accuracy of dog breed tests.

On Wednesday, WBZ News reported its investigations team receiving dog breed results from the company DNA My Dog after one of its reporters sent in a swab sample – from her own cheek.

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Unbelievably cute, unnervingly smart and heroically disobedient, ‘Mad Mick’ was the perfect companion for a sick 10-year-old

Mickey was a rebel. Not the kind of dude who’d go round telling everyone how radical he was – just quietly, persistently insubordinate.

Springer spaniels were pretty rare back in the 1970s. We thought he’d be like a cocker – sweet, passive, affectionate. Mickey turned out to be supersmart but ungovernable. He became known to some as “Mad Mick”.

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He came in limping and in distress, and then disappeared, promoting a frantic search

Sunday morning: the cat wakes me up in its usual way, by leaping on to my chest and placing a paw over my mouth to stop me crying out. I open my eyes, and the cat leans in.

“Miaow,” it says, meaning: let’s go.

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Pet hangouts are blissfully free from social awkwardness, aggravation and anxiety. Your pet will not text ‘nearly there’ when it is actually still faffing around looking for its keys ...

‘The average woman with a pet now spends more time ‘actively engaged’ with her pet than she spends hanging out face-to-face with fellow humans on any given day,” I read in the Atlantic . It was a dissection of the “crisis in social fitness”, alternatively known as “why we’re all destined to die alone, our faces eaten by the very pet whose company we have chosen above our own kind”. Am I, a pet owner, or my pet-owning friends (of all genders) surprised? Of course not.

Humans are great for certain things. Opening jars. Forensic textual analysis of single-word WhatsApps from potential romantic entanglements. Separating dark and light washing. Remembering why you hate your boss. But despite all that, pets make better low-key hangout companions.

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Ours was a love-hate relationship. She was beautiful and dainty and I loved her. I was human and she hated me. But when she died I mourned her more than any of my friendlier rats

While many student flats are infested with unwanted mice, 20 years ago I voluntarily filled mine with rats. I began with two from a pet shop, but ended up taking on several more rescues, buying an enormous cage so they could climb and dig and play. Lots of people don’t like rats, but they are wonderful animals and a great alternative if you don’t have time or space for a dog. Rats are clever, clean and full of personality and affection. But none of mine had as much personality as Letty, the rat I found in a bin.

She had clearly been someone’s pet, though I never found out whose, or how she had ended up on the streets. On a visit home from university one Christmas, I went for a drink with a friend who mentioned that he had seen a black-and-white rat in a nearby bin. It took two attempts, but I caught her, trapping her in a cat carrier and driving back to my family home filled with satisfaction that was not shared by my mother.

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The country’s 13 million dogs create a lot of mess that’s hard to dispose of, dangerous and harmful to the environment

An unlikely folk hero has emerged in the Venice beach area of Los Angeles. Their identity is unknown, but their popularity is down to their homemade flags on cocktail sticks stuck into piles of dog faeces with messages like “Lazy. Pick. Up. Your. Dog. Poo”. The message is going down well. “I’m a big fan,” said one local. “No one wants to see a dog poop everywhere.”

These are the exact tactics that were used in Britain back in the 1980s, when dog faeces on the streets first began to be seen as unacceptable. Campaigners stuck little flags with similar messages aimed at getting dog poo off streets and public play areas. In many ways it was a successful campaign. There’s now widespread consciousness of the dangers to children of toxocara disease caused by accidentally ingesting excrement via their hands. And there are very few who would put up a public defence that a faeces-littered pavement is a sign of the healthy freedom of its citizens.

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The Covid boom in pet ownership has led to operators offering plenty of pet-friendly accommodation. But is it really such a good idea?

Go on holiday without your best friend? For growing numbers of dog owners, it’s unthinkable.

Holiday operators have seen a big jump in guests booking accommodation that accepts dogs in recent months, and the trend is set to accelerate this year.

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We adopted him as a stray, and he comforted me through my wife’s cancer. When he grew ill with cancer, too, I knew he needed my support

The phone call we had been dreading came one morning last June. An MRI scan and biopsy had confirmed that our cat, Kevin, had inoperable throat cancer. I thanked the vet for the care she had lavished on him, and booked his death for 2pm the same day.

I hung up the phone. I stood in the garden, dazed. Then I started to howl. I howled in grief, I howled in anger, I howled at the injustice of it all.

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