It’s fast and easy to tie, but the true value of the quick release knot lies in its ability to be quickly and easily untied in the event of an emergency.

“I used to build props and worked in film and television production, and I had a shop in my garage at home,” says Russ Gray, cofounder of Veterinary Simulator Industries (VSI) in Calgary, Alberta. “My neighbour was the dean for the University of Calgary’s new Veterinary School. He knew that I built weird things, so he asked me if I could build the back end of a cow just to garner some interest for the new school at the agricultural fair in Calgary. He wanted the back end of three cows so that kids could reach up into the rectum and palpate a calf’s head. I contacted my business partner, Bryan Pfahl, and we created them for him. At the time we were doing all kinds of jobs for science centres and things like that during the course of our careers, so we just took it on as another project.”

We might associate donkeys with Christmas, but new research from the University of Portsmouth shows the animals prefer hotter periods of the year. Donkeys, it seems, love sun and warmth. That’s the finding of the first study to examine the conditions under which healthy (non-working) donkeys and mules seek shelter in hot, dry climates.

Exercise-Induced Pulmonary Hemorrhage (EIPH) is estimated to affect between 44 – 85 percent of Thoroughbreds and up to 87 percent of Standardbreds worldwide. There is concern in racing circles that EIPH can shorten a racehorse’s career and in rare worst-case scenarios, cause sudden death from massive hemorrhage. Dr. Janet Beeler-Marfisi (Ontario Veterinary College, Department of Pathobiology) and her collaborators plan to use data from air quality monitoring stations and weather stations near Woodbine and Woodbine Mohawk Park racetracks in Ontario, cross referenced with endoscopic exams, to determine if there are patterns between EIPH and horses exercising in areas of increased air pollution or in cooler temperatures.