Comedian Bill Bailey is deeply serious about wildlife. He campaigns for various animal charities, and his home in west London doubles up as an informal animal sanctuary. It’s a passion that has led him into some bizarre situations.

On a tour of China in 2012, for instance, he was invited to a restaurant where Eurasian eagle owl was on the menu. He ordered the bird, “and before they cooked it I said, ‘No, I want it to take away’, so they wrapped this live bird in parcel paper and we drove off with it in a taxi.” In the car, he rang an expert, who said the owl could probably be safely released if it wasn’t traumatised. “It wasn’t depressed – it was just trying to rip its way through the paper with these gigantic talons, so we drove to some woodland and let it go.

That restaurant visit cost me about £200 and we didn’t even get a meal, but I like to think we did the right thing…”
(Michael Odell in The Times, and The Week, 7 November 2020)

Comment: Nice to read a harmless, cheerful piece of news. Must look for more, if such exist!