A Fishy Tale

I initially thought this was a joke, but reading on discovered that it is anything but. Two ordinary blokes albeit, admittedly, a bit the worse for drink, went for a night swim after a party in Folkestone, Kent and played with a dolphin which approached them in the sea. It was a public beach, and the dolphin was wild, and in the open sea. They now both have a criminal record.

Is it me, or has the world gone insane. When I was a child people patted and stroked animals that approached them, it was normal, provided the animal wasn't dangerous. Wild animals usually went the other way, very quickly, but one usually tried to get closer for a look if one could. Don't get me wrong, I am all for protecting animals, but the usual reaction if an animal approaches you in an unaggressive manner is to assume it is being friendly and to play with it

Now suddenly this is a criminal offence, or so it would seem. And we are to blame if an animal approaches us because we do not have in depth knowledge of its behavioural psychology and anticipate the possible effects on the animal. It just seems like another preposterous case of the do-gooders plunging us even further into surreal insanity.