Be mindful of what you do with your disposable covid PPE - that’s things like masks and gloves - because like a lot of human rubbish they’re finding their way into the lives of animals with catastrophic consequences.

The end of lockdown may be in sight, but for many companion animals brought into homes over the last year seemingly on a whim by people hoping to alleviate their boredom or get free eggs, the picture isn’t so optimistic. From dangerously maladjusted dogs to chickens dumped in fields, remember that companion animals are for life, not just for lockdown.

The UK government has just announced an end of all major lockdown restrictions in time for the summer, yet the news that the first cases of H5N8 in humans - at a bird farm in Russia - only serves to remind us that it is only a matter of time before a worse pandemic strikes.

Over the last few decades, hundreds of human pathogens have emerged at a rate unprecedented in human history. Emerged from where? Mostly from animals, says Dr Michael Greger in our first Surge guest blog. Part of the Not If, But When campaign.

Marking the 4,000th download of our new white paper ‘COVID-19 and Animal Exploitation: Preventing the Next Global Pandemic’, we examine the case for abolishing factory farming as a means to delay, if not prevent, the next catastrophe.