OFFSETTING today's depressing figures on rising animal cruelty, there is, of course, the knowledge that thousands of East Lancashire people are not just kind to their pets, but go out of their way to pamper them.

But how many we wonder will be so fond of their pooches and pussies that they will take up the offer available in one East Lancashire supermarket - enabling them to become pet-food tasters on their behalf!

Can you imagine the upshot after they've woofed it down?...Some people beginning to see lamp-posts in a new light and others clawing the carpet and suffering slipped discs through trying to lick their...

No, it doesn't bear thinking about.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.