Nearly five million people in the US are bitten by dogs each year. The most common victims are children, most of whom are bitten by family pets. But which breed bites the most? That’s hard to say, because according to a new study, “unknown” tops the list.

Some people own dogs, others don’t. How come? A group of researchers in Great Britain and Sweden wondered why. After all, there would seem to be a lot of factors that make owning a dog a no brainer: as the earliest domesticated animals, dogs have been providing humans with both help (as working dogs of various types) and companionship for at least 15,000 years.

We’ve entered the peak moving season in the US. On average, more than 40 million people move each year in the United States, with an estimated 80% of those moves occurring between April and September. And, according to an oft-quoted study on pet relinquishment at US animal shelters, the number one reason pet owners give for relinquishing pets is moving (7%). Does that mean we’ve also entered the peak season for pet relinquishment?

It’s hard to say which one’s hairier: the man or the dog. But we do know which one’s got more germs in his fur. That’s thanks to a recent study by European researchers that only distantly had anything to do with beards and everything to do with dogs and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners.

They just don’t care. At least, that’s a reasonable conclusion to draw from a new study by Japanese researchers that suggests household cats can respond to the sound of their own names.

A new study by scientists at the University of Liverpool and Mars Petcare’s Waltham Centre for Pet Nutrition showed that the lifespans of overweight dogs were up to two-and-a-half years shorter than those of ideal-weight dogs.

Cats are basically freeloaders. They’re perfectly capable of foraging for food on their own, but there they are at feeding time, tails twitching like clockwork, waiting impatiently for you to open the can. Maybe you should make them work a little harder for their supper. Puzzle feeders can help.

If we want to save seabirds, banning plastic straws alone won’t cut it. We need to ban plastic balloons. A recent study of more than 1,700 dead seabirds showed that the deaths of more than 25% were linked to eating plastic.

At least, that’s the conclusion reached in a new study that tested the efficacy of using computer touchscreens to stimulate dogs’ mental abilities, especially older dogs. Researchers in Austria and Hungary tested the cognitive abilities of 265 dogs of various breeds and ages by training them to push their snouts against a special touchscreen and select one of two pictures.

If you know a couple that’s having trouble trying to conceive, their couch could be part of the problem. Or their shower curtain. Or any number of other household items, depending on what they’re made of. New research by scientists at the University of Nottingham (UNOT) in Nottingham, England suggests that common chemicals and environmental contaminants found in the home could be causing infertility in men—and in male dogs, too.