COWS ON THE BEACH

Dead cows have been turning up on the beaches of Denmark and Southern Sweden, minus their eartags. Since cattle are not known for their aquatic abilities, this is a bit of a puzzle for the local police.

Their current theory puts the cause as a Lebanese-registered ship that left the United States in December bound for Russia with a cargo of live cattle. When it reached the Bay of Biscay, it seems that the ship was hit by a violent storm, which caused the deaths of more than 80 of the animals. What do you do in the middle of the ocean with a load of big, dead animals? The legal answer is that you are supposed to take them back to the port of embarkation. Understandably, but wrongly, the crew thought it would be easier to clip off their eartags and heave them overboard one they had got through the Kiel Canal and into the Baltic. Hence the run of carcasses on Scandinavian beaches.

Some overexcited locals are muttering about foot-and-mouth disease and other epidemics. Fortunately, the Danish police are a little more relaxed; the dead cows are simply carted off the beach and burnt.

Walter Blotscher