The British Veterinary Association (BVA) is urging caution after a rise in demand for vets due to the increase in pet ownership in lockdown and the new legal requirement for Brexit health checks on food exports to the EU.The BVA’s comments come just days after the Food Standards Agency (FSA) warned meat and poultry producers that the shortage of vets might impact the supply of meat over Christmas.

• Would Dominic Raab’s Brexit campaign have persuaded the over-50s if he had told them that they would be arriving in the promised sunny uplands not the day they cast off the shackles of the EU, but when they were well into their 60s, 70s and 80s – after four years of negotiation and then 10 years of misery in which nothing worked as foretold (Raab shrugs off Brexit troubles, urging people to take ‘10-year view’ , 14 February)?

• I have been teaching French and Spanish for 37 years and see first-hand the benefits of the Erasmus scheme (UK students lose Erasmus membership in Brexit deal , 24 December).• So the Brexit deal is Boris Johnson’s Christmas gift to the nation.

Photograph: Jacob King/PA The Kennel Club, which organises Crufts, said notification from Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs that travel regulations for pets would remain the same during the Brexit transition period was only received after entries had closed on 20 January.

Get ’em out!’ (Picture: BBC)The prime minister has been stopped by a man complaining about a park ‘full of dog poo’.He was in Manchester on the election campaign trail when he had the exchange yesterday, with a man very passionate about people registering their dogs.

Renew your passport earlier than planned, buy a GB sticker for your car, and prepare to wait four months before you can take your ferret on holiday: these are all among the snippets of advice offered by the government’s new Brexit website for British citizens planning to travel to the EU after 31 October.

The dog had been tied with a rope that had embedded into his skin It had several open wounds across his back Maggots were eating the dog alive‘It could be that a dog catcher severed his leg off and put it on the side of his house.

Smuggled beagle puppy being checked after being seized at port (Image: RSPCA )The RSPCA says greater border security could thwart smugglers trafficking thousands of puppies into the UK every year – many too young and sick to be sold legally to families.

A pal checks in on the exhausted dog to see if she’s okay (Picture: KHAP.The Mega Agency)If you need some more pictures of dogs with their tongues hanging out to get you through the rest of the week, then take a look at Elmer the eight-year-old Bernese mountain dog.

Yes, all our dreams have come true – the Brexit march has been taken over by a pack of incredibly cute and fluffy dogs. (Picture: Richard Hartley-Parkinson). (Picture: Richard Hartley-Parkinson). (Picture: LNP). (Picture: AP) (Picture: AP) (Picture: AP) (Picture: AP)

“We are also concerned that pet travel changes under a no-deal Brexit could spark a surge in demand for small animal vets and laboratory capacity to fulfil increased requirements for rabies testing and vaccination at a time when the workforce is already experiencing shortfalls.

Organisers of the “wooferendum” march say more than half of vets registering in the UK each year come from abroad, most from the EU, and they cite a report by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) saying a cut in numbers would be likely to cause shortages, jeopardising animal welfare and economic production.