The curious incident of the dog in the night-time

Always happy for a new way to blacken the name of Heather Mills - dubbed Lady Mucca because of the desperate need to rubbish her at every turn - The Sun is now claiming she kills dogs.

Or, at least, they've given space to one of Mills' neighbours who claims the death of her dog was caused by Mills' firework party:

The 20 minutes of bangs and flashes — which came without warning in a quiet rural area — also caused 15 of her horses to stampede in terror, as animal rights activist Mucca and pals sipped champagne.

See? Sipping champagne while she went round killing dogs and upsetting horses. Does the woman have any shame?

Although, of course, the dog died from bloat on Sunday morning, rather than "from fear" during the Saturday night, and canine gastric dilation-torsion seems to be caused more by breeding and the way the animal eats than by the creature being stressed. It is, of course, horrible to lose a pet; it may even be that the fireworks played some role in increasing the discomfort of the animal's last hours. But it's surprising to see a national newspaper working a terrible coincidence up into a story of this sort.