From mid-2016, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) will be publishing in full all clinical trials within application dossiers for human medicines submitted from January 2015 onwards, on completion of the decision-making process. In contrast, developments in transparency in the veterinary sector have been frozen since discussion on guidance was placed on hold in 2011, pending legal challenges to EMA decisions on release of some (human) documents. Paul Cooper, founder of CEREVET Limited and President of the Association of Veterinary Consultants (AVC), discusses where we are now, and whether we can expect to follow the transparency tendency with a veterinary clinical trials release policy.