Gah, BBC, stop that, you're better than that. There is no evidence that the reason they did that was the ethnicity of the woman. That whole thing is a direct result of the first headline posted about it. I won't say that the reason was not her ethnicity, but you can't say that it was. You cannot say anything about the motivations. Heck, they could have been motivated because they personally knew her and hated her for some other reason. It's not likely, but it's a possibility. As I said earlier, the most likely motivation was her employer, and the next most likely her ethnicity. Not the other way around. And yes, any way you cut it, it's still wrong, but the reason might not be race, so please people, stop acting like it's been confirmed that it was race.
@darque: other animals have sapience. And octopi are ridiculously intelligent. And pigeons as well. We are animals. Pretty intelligent animals, but animals none the less.