# First, but @items into a hash instead though...
my @array = qw(dog cat cow horse donkey chicken);
my %items = qw(cat 1 donkey 1);

# this is weird.. if this is true
print "\$array[-4] = $array[-4]\n";

for (1..@array) {
  splice(@array, -$_, 1) if $items{ $array[-$_] };
}

# and this is true
print "\$array[-4] = $array[-4]\n";

# how come this is right???
print join ', ',@array, "\n";