Otter folly

I have often shown, I think, that I am a great fan of otters. These iconic creatures more or less disappeared completely from our waterways because of pollution and persecution, and it has only been since we cleaned our rivers up that they have spread back across the country. So I was bemused by a small news item in yesterday's i newspaper that a man contacted police after several koi carp valued at thousands of pounds had disappeared from his garden pond.

Police ascertained that it was not a human that had stolen them, but an animal, most likely an otter. That'll teach him not to secure his pond properly.

However, another person put his oar in, and though he was named, his role or position vis-a-vis the matter was not elaborated on. But his ridiculous words inspired me to write to the paper, and I was fortunate enough to get my letter published today:

I was horrified to read that some poor person's valuable koi carp had been taken from his unprotected pond, not by a human thief for profit, but by an otter. Someone called Hugh Miles was quoted as saying, "Some conservationists think they are cuddly, playful creatures, but they are killers". Unlike humans, apparently, who wait for animals to drop dead naturally before eating them. Clearly taking carp for profit is better than killing them for food. Isn't this the kind of thinking that helped exterminate otters from our polluted rivers and trout streams in the past?

I'm proud!