First ice-cream van introduced for dogs in London

LONDON: A new ice cream van with tasty treats specifically for canines will have man's best friend howling with delight. Instead of offering the traditional vanilla whip cones topped with a flake, these frozen feasts contain gammon and chicken ice cream - complete with a crunchy canine biscuit bone. A team of scientists investigated the perfect combination of temperature, texture and taste, ensuring the treats would be delicious to dogs and completely safe. They came up with two flavours - 'dog eat hog world' - a gammon and chicken sorbet topped with a biscuit and served in a cone - and 'canine cookie crunch' - a combination of mixed dog biscuits and ice cream. The K99 van can be found in parks this summer and, rather than the traditional chimes, the van will be playing the theme tune to Scooby Doo. It makes its debut appearance at The Boomerang Pets Party in Regents Park, London, on Saturday. Spokesperson for The Boomerang Pets Party Sally Bezant said: 'Every year Brits consume an average of around 50 ice creams per person, with the majority of these eaten in the summer months. 'All the while, man's best friend has to make do with a bowl of water to cool down. And, with 10.5 million dogs in the UK, that's a lot of pets missing out.' 'With this is mind, The Boomerang Pets Party decided to take action and bring an ice cream to the dogs of Britain.' Head chef behind the K99's recipes Ceric Nale said: 'When it came to designing the recipes for the K99s, we wanted to make sure we had the most exciting flavour and texture combinations. 'After a lot of research, a gammon and chicken ice cream and a mixed dog biscuit ice cream were the clear winners, and we hope they'll be flavours dogs simply can't refuse.' Early results show that dogs have a big appetite for the novelty treats. The ice creams are available for a 99p donation to Berkshire Search and Rescue Dogs.