6 JANUARY 1990, Page 22

Gay the gorilla

Sir: I write in defence of pigs and their sexual inclinations. According to Dr Ahmed quoted in Jane Kelly's piece on the coming Islamification of Ireland, 'it has proven that the pig is the only homosexual animal'. As a veterinary surgeon who for over 33 years has worked with everything from bird-eating spiders to bison to giant pandas, I can assure you this is nonsense. Pigs behave in a consistently heterosexual manner. Cattle however, including those eaten by Muslims, exhibit distinct homosexual (lesbian') leanings when one of their number is in oestrus, and homosex- uality is extremely common among dol- phins and baboons. Even the occasional gay gorilla is not unknown.

David C. Taylor

2 Withy Close, Lightwater, Surrey