Ain't life a bitch

The BBFC's recent uncut passing of the Mexican movie Amores Perros has demonstrated two things with startling clarity: firstly, that UK law on the subject of animal cruelty is neither 'archaic' nor 'crazy' nor 'outdated' (as has been suggested by some half-wit journalists) but extremely sensible, workable, and productive; and secondly, that the British press are a shameful bunch of Neanderthals who like nothing more than crying wolf on the issue of 'crazed animal rights activists' whenever they have the chance.

For those who didn't catch it at the Edinburgh Film Festival, Amores Perros is as an extraordinary piece of work from director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu in which the human conflicts played out in a series of intertwining stories are mirrored and matched by a dog's-eye view of the world wracked with canine carnage and catastrophe.

One of these stories involves the graphic depiction of illegal and deadly dog-fighting, replete with hair-raising scenes in which the viewer is assaulted by the sights, sounds and (in true Tap-speak) smells of this most barbaric 'sport'.