More about dogs.

Jerusalem court denies dog condemned to stoning

Reports that a Jewish rabbinical court in Israel condemned a stray dog to death by stoning have been strongly denied.

The source of the report, Israel's Maariv newspaper, apologised for its headline and for any offense caused.

The head of the court, Yehoshua Levin, was quoted by Maariv as saying: "There is no basis for abuse of animals from the side of Jewish Halacha [law].''

In a statement, the court denied that a dog had been condemned.

A dog had entered the court and been removed, it said.

The story was reported in the Israeli and international press, including the BBC News website.

The original reports said that the dog entered the Jerusalem financial court several weeks ago and would not leave.

It was reported that the dog reminded a judge of a curse passed on a now deceased secular lawyer about 20 years ago, when judges bid his spirit to enter the body of a dog. The animal was said to have escaped before the sentence was carried out.

An animal welfare organization filed a complaint with the police against a court official.

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Are we free to love?

Doubtless. Are we free in love? We don’t know. Being in love is either freedom itself, or its opposite. Am I, for instance, free to love dogs? Because my first memories are of dogs, because I confided in them when I was confused and frightened, because mine licked away my earliest tears, am I free in my affection? The reason this sounds silly is that it is silly. The obvious point is that I don’t care. Stated philosophically, I have a marked preference for the belief that I actually love dogs. Stated more simply, conditional love is no love at all. And so I love what I love with all the fierceness I can, with every beat of my heart, or not at all.

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