Forget the fictional Hound of the Baskervilles, Dartmoor now has a real beast of prey on the loose. The legendary hound was diabolical and terrifying, but people have nothing to fear from Flaviu the lynx, though there is much for him to fear from them.

When we animal advocates heard the news that Dartmoor Zoo’s newly acquired lynx had succeeded in a daring break-out-of-jail within hours of arriving at his new ‘home’, we were cheering him on, and mentally casting black spells over efforts to bring him back to captivity. Even zoo owner Ben Mee admitted he would secretly be “really proud” if Flaviu disappeared and made a new life for himself.

That was exactly two weeks ago and Flaviu is still living in the wild. So far police, zoo workers and volunteers, using helicopters, drones, baited traps, recordings of his mother’s call and even her bedding, have all been foiled by the…

The lovely young person in this picture  – no, I don’t mean the piggy one, though she is gorgeous too – as I was saying, this lovely young person and I have two things in common. First of all we are both committed vegans for the animals, the environment and the planet. And second, like many others we both draw inspiration from Albert Schweitzer. For her, “Until we extend our circle of compassion to all living things, humanity will not find peace” and for me his philosophy of “Reverence for Life” – one and the same thing of course.

Sadly for me, there the resemblance ends. Because this teenager is a wonder and has already accomplished more in her 14 years on the planet than I have in my … well, I don’t think I’ll divulge just how many years.

So meet Lila Copeland. At 8 years of age, already…