Designer animals: scary science or superb satire?

Highwire giraffes, beaked porcupines, reflective cats … an artist’s proposal to refashion the natural world is either a mad solution for extinction or a comical comment on our perverse attitudes about natureThe internet has broken my sense of humour. Designer Kathryn Fleming has proposed biologically engineering hybrid animals that bred to resist extinction. Beasts include a beaked porcupine that can lay eggs, and the superbivore, a kind of souped-up deer/giraffe that can tightrope walk. The