UK as a leader in animal welfare? Well, some animals are more equal than others | Catherine Bennett

To protect game birds, the government has decided it's fine to kill crows and jackdawsWith a zillion images of themselves to choose from, many taken by a reverent state photographer, Boris and Carrie Johnson used a picture of their dog, Dilyn, for their recent Christmas card.If unlikely to appeal to the current pope, the pet is, they presumably concluded, more generally inoffensive, ostensibly uninvolved in the family's tireless requisitioning of free luxury goods and, on a more positive note, a pointed reminder of the household's remaining claim to virtue. Or if that's putting it too strongly: to their formal recognition as sentient beings. Continue reading...