The director of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics has called for an international court to be created for cases of animal cruelty.

In his new book The Global Guide to Animal Protection, Professor Andrew Linzey, who heads up the centre in Iffley Road, said that where governments have failed to take steps to prevent cruelty to animals the court could step in.

He said: “The court would consist of eminent humanitarians drawn from the legal and veterinary professions together with ethicists, philosophers, theologians, and those accomplished in anti-cruelty work worldwide.”