Richard Collins: Human cruelty to wildlife still persists

Cobras, their mouths stitched closed, or their poison receptacles removed, still perform for tourists on the great square at Marrakesh

A snake charmer plays music for his cobra at the Jemaa el-Fnaa square in Marrakesh, Morocco

On June 20 1631, pirates from North Africa’s Barbary Coast attacked the West Cork village of Baltimore. Led by a Dutchman, they carried off at least 107 people, mainly English settlers. The male victims became galley-slaves, while the women were sold into harems. Only two of those abducted ever returned to Baltimore.

‘Berber’ comes from the Latin ‘barbarus’, meaning a foreigner whose ‘bar-bar’ utterances were deemed to be gibberish.