I was really shocked by the contrast in people's attitudes, highlighted by this story, and this story, on the BBC.

In the first report, a £250,000 reward has been offered to track down the killers of a much-loved goose, known as Grumpy Gertie, which was shot in the village of Sandon, Hertfordshire.

The second report describes how a three-year-old boy was found after spending three days alone with the body of his mother. Now he has no-one to care for him, so "friends have collected more than £3,400 towards the dead mother's funeral costs and in aid of her son".

What is wrong with people's priorities, that they think that a quarter of a million is an appropriate amount to catch a goose-killer, but a few thousand is enough to care for a boy and bury his mother? The English do have a history of caring more for certain breeds of animals than for people (getting upset about some Asian nations where they eat dogs, angry at the French and Belgians because they eat horses, and incensed at the treatment of donkeys in Spain, to name but a few), but this is getting ridiculous.