How much can a polar bear?

The pathetic story of the polar bear who died of an overdose at Tallinn Zoo last week reignited the flames of my love/hate relationship with the exploitation of animals in captivity. The 20-year-old male understandably chose to flee his depressing concrete home when his handler accidentally left the door open, and was killed as a result of being cack-handedly tranquilised in an effort to get him back inside his cage.

I'm a great lover of animals, and a great supporter - in spirit at least - of animal rights. I'm also very much for education and understanding when it comes to animals, which is why really good zoos will always get the thumbs up from me. Tallinn Zoo, sadly, is not one of them. Don't get me wrong: it's through no real fault of their own, as they subsist on about half a shoestring at the best of times, and despite this they have done quite a bit to improve the lot of many of the animals they keep.

But I have seen few more depressing sights in my life than 'bear alley' at Tallinn Zoo: magnificent animals forced to live in rusty grey cages tens of thousands of times smaller than the space they would be free to roam in the wild. Watching them pace back and forth like madmen is made all the worse by the realisation that the distress you feel in watching them for the minute or two you can bear it can't be anything like the distress they're in their whole lives.

And now poor old Franz is having his insides hoovered out at the taxidermist's so he can be stuffed and mounted somewhere. Even in death he is fated to be gawped at. I only hope it serves some educational purpose, and that we learn from it.