Mick Hartley

That prize-winning photo which made the news when the horse's owner got a bit snotty?

[Photo: Mercury Press & Media Ltd]

We thought it was just a case of the horse's owner being a bit of a…well, a horse's arse. But Catherine Shoard at CiF teases out the deeper significance:

I’ve barely fed a horse carrots, let alone sat on one, but even I can see in her face a combination of anger, hunger and confusion, rather than the larky desire to promote some lols on Instagram….

Decades of being raised on cartoons have bred a generation of people who communicate through emojis and who want playthings, not pets; who infer cuteness into even the angriest nag just to match our mood. The movement to convert animals into accessories for adults has gathered such pace that we don’t just neuter them, we customise them – non-moulting fur, the right density of spots – to our individual taste….

What drives all this is not simply infantilism – it is also individualism. As the planet warms, so human focus seems to intensify on our own fate, rather than those of other creatures. And as we further abandon a sense of responsibility, so we become more self-interested, more species-ist, less bothered about fitting into an ecosystem. Animals can either get on board with helping us survive us or get lost.

Problem is, they won’t. Fifty years from now, if we get to a stage of sufficient chaos that we must fend for ourselves among the wildebeests, our fight-or-flight reflexes will need to be pretty keen. Then, there will be no time for photos with animals we hope are friendly. Betty will have her day. And she will be ready for her closeup.

Desperate times at the Guardian…