Sir, Mr Stephen McKay (letter, August 26) states: “But there is no animal on earth that could begin to play a table tennis match.” The leading American behaviourist, B. F. Skinner, is reputed (amongst other things) to have taught a rabbit to pick up a coin in its mouth and drop it into a piggy bank, and a pig to vacuum.
In her book Opening Skinner’s Box (Bloomsbury, 2004), Lauren Slater speculates: “If he could train rats to press levers, why not train pigeons to, say, play ping-pong?”
Yours faithfully,
ALAN ROBINSON,
4 Mendip Lea Close, Draycott,
Cheddar, Somerset BS27 3SY.
August 27.