The familiar scent of its owner lingers like perfume in a dog's brain, US scientists claim.

Dame Vivienne Westwood has admitted she shares bathwater with her husband.

The bizarre use of insects, fish and animals to help cure various ailments has a long history. Here are six of the most popular treatments – some are still in use today.

A rampaging elephant smashed a house to bits in an Indian village, but turned back and rescued a baby trapped in the rubble, a couple have claimed.

Chickens starved to death, dead and decaying bobby calves and the carcasses of four goats were found by SPCA inspectors at a rural West Auckland property.

“If I'm going to cark it, I'm going to have a beer," Australian man Rod Sommerville told himself after being bitten by a deadly snake.

Said to be the largest show of its kind in the world, the Crufts Dog Show is a annual four-day event, features thousands of dogs, with competitors travelling from countries across the globe to take part.

A lifestyle block farmer who bashed two pigs with a heavy steel bar in a "prolonged and violent attack" in front of an upset teenage boy has been jailed today.

A man has been jailed for a year and banned from owning animals for a decade after beating and drowning a dog in an attempt to euthanise it, the SPCA said.

A man sprayed oven cleaner into a dog's face several times while walking in an off-lead area of a park, a jury at Wellington District Court has been told.

An otter has been photographed attacking and eating an alligator at a US wildlife sanctuary.

The Green Party has called for a moratorium on the use of trawl nets around the Auckland Islands, following the Government's announcement this morning of a new threat management plan for the endangered New Zealand sea lion.

Trout, deer, pigs and other exotic species would have to be culled from the Ureweras under a law change before Parliament, fishers and hunters are warning Government.

Parents of dog-attack victims say they relive the nightmare each time they hear of another child suffering horrific injuries when they are mauled by a dog.

Stacey the endangered green turtle, found washed up and emaciated on a New Zealand beach, has been released back into the wild.

A teenager savaged by a dog 11 years ago has spoken out about the frightening attack in Murupara, telling the 7-year-old Japanese victim to "just hold on".

The "right to enjoy owning dogs" has to be protected, even at the cost of 20,000 human victims, writes Brian Rudman.

The Japanese girl attacked by four dogs at a Murupara home was due to fly home with her family to Japan tomorrow.

Forest & Bird says an endangered New Zealand sea lion has been killed in a squid fishing net, the second since the squid fishing season began five weeks ago.

A 7-year-old Japanese girl is in a critical condition after being savaged by four dogs in Murupara this afternoon.

Great white shark tourism operators will be need to have a permit in the same way as for whale, dolphin and seal watching, the Government has announced.

A woman is in a serious condition and ten children have been taken to hospital after an attack by bees or wasps on Nelson's Tahunanui Beach.

A family in Texas claim to have shot and killed a chupacabra, a mythical creature with a reputation for sucking blood from live-stock across America.

Dog owners are being advised to ignore the puppy eyes, the tail-between-legs and the apparent guilt the animals appear to show when they have done something wrong – canines do not feel shame, according to animal behaviour experts.

A bacterial disease is unlikely to be the main cause of endangered New Zealand sea lion deaths in the Auckland Islands, scientists say.

A pilot was lucky to escape with just a cut on his head after a bird came smashing through the windshield of his aircraft as he was flying 300m above the ground.

A leopard sparked panic in a north Indian city when it strayed inside a hospital, a cinema and an apartment block while evading captors and injured at least two people.

A rare, salamander-like amphibian has been spotted in its only known natural habitat, after researchers feared the creature had disappeared from the wild.