Danes treat animals far better than the Irish

There has been a huge outcry against the killing of a giraffe at Copenhagen zoo, and the feeding of its carcass to lions, while people watched.

I share the revulsion. If inbreeding was an issue, the animal could have been sterilised. But forgive my cynicism when a caller to an Irish radio programme said this wouldn’t happen here.

The Danes treat animals far better than we do. They don’t allow live hare-coursing, which sets up animals as live bait for salivating dogs. Hares are snatched from the Irish countryside, held in captivity, and then forced to run from greyhounds in a wire-enclosed field.