Animal welfare ..... seventies style

In 1973 the cowboy tilts back his hat,
and licks the ice cream running down his fist.
The donkey kicks slowly over the sand,
on the repetitious route, he avoids his own manure.

The big game hunter swigs his glass bottled Fanta
He keeps the doped and confused king of the jungle in his sights.
The lion pads up and down and circles in demented mania
No parole, just cheap meat tossed into his cage..

The Maharajah, rides his mighty beast, 
Stick of rock, his sceptre of rule, clasped in sticky hand
tired, sad , pleading eyes stare in vain,
Aching arthritic joints straining in northern cold as children clamber aboard 

The  fisherman, lands the mighty catch
No screaming reels, just a duck on a hook.
The prize? A goldfish gasping in a plastic bag.  
Another fairground fatality, flushed tomorrow morning.

PG tips?, Mrs chimpanzee will be mother,
Cute in costumes and dubbed voices, they laugh and joke!
A million miles from the harsh trainers with sticks and whips,
A nations favourite,  ….. it’s not my cup of tea.





Note : the reference to PG tips in the final verse is pertaining to advertisements in the 1970,s featuring chimps dressed in costumes with dubbed over voices advertising tea. They were apparently subjected to cruel training regimes.