Animals news

• How can you treat your pet for fleas without harming nature?

  18-02-2025 18:11
  
  With studies showing flea treatments can damage rivers and kill baby birds, experts suggest other optionsThe chemicals used in standard flea treatments are polluting waterways and having a drastic effect on wildlife in the UK, killing songbird chicks.Vets usually advise owners to treat their pets every month or so, even if they do not have fleas, but scientists are now urgently calling for the government to reassess the environmental risk of pesticides used in the treatments and to restrict them
  
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• I’m obsessed with fish that clean other fish: they remember their clients, much like a hairdresser

  18-02-2025 10:00
  
  I’m campaigning for legal protection for cleaner fish, because no one has done a proper assessment of the impact of removing them from Scottish reefsI was in my 50s when I first became aware that cleaner fish existed, when I met a fisher who sold them to Scottish salmon farms. Each year, around the world, such farms use more than 60 million cleaner fish to eat – or “clean” – parasites off other fish. But the natural habitat of the cleaner fish is the reef.On a reef,
  
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• Should we ban cats? – podcast

  18-02-2025 06:00
  
  The Scottish first minister, John Swinney, was recently forced to deny plans to ban cats after a report from independent experts said the species was a threat to Scotland’s wildlife. In the UK, it is estimated that cats kill or bring home 57 million mammals and 27 million birds every year. Ian Sample hears from cat-owner Madeleine Finlay and the ecologist Prof Robbie McDonald about the best ways to reduce our feline companions’ impact on wildlife without affecting welfareClips: Good
  
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