An animal lead is arranged for gripping by a handler at one end, and has a releasable attachment means for a collar or harness at the other end. The attachment means has a hooked body (4) with an aperture (20) closed by a gate (7) in a release frame (5). The release frame moves relative to the body and has an open configuration in which the gate is retracted from the gap, and a closed configuration in which the gate is held by the release frame to close the gap. The gate moves relative to the release frame whereby the hooked body may be clipped into a fastening loop of a collar or harness by the gate pushed aside and springing back to close the gap. The release frame has a decoupling member (10) arranged to sweep across the aperture as the release frame is moved from the closed to the open configuration, so that the decoupling member urges the collar to disengage by sweeping a rim of its fastening loop out of the aperture through the gap. The attachment means may have a releasable locking arrangement (11, 14) for the release frame and a remote actuating means for operation of the release frame. The arrangement allows for convenient attachment/detachment of an animal to the lead.
