Many countries around the world have laws to protect animal wellbeing, sometimes framed in general terms, sometimes more specific. For example: in Australia it’s illegal to give kangaroos more than 6 bottles of beer, in Florida you can go to jail for loading livestock onto school buses (and/or having sex with a porcupine. Er, no comment). In Britain, the Loch Ness monster is a protected species. In parts of the US it’s forbidden to catch fish with a machine gun (or by lasso, or by giving them alcohol, interestingly). And although you can hunt bears legally in Alaska, it’s against the law to wake them up for a photo. In the Philippines cremations are only allowed if there is no live creature in the deceased’s pockets*.

All well and good, but I prefer the “do as you would be done by” approach to animals that we saw in Tamil Nadu, India.

*These wonderful examples are courtesy of writer Alwyn Sambrook