It would be better to store the items that you don't want in a hash. Then you could do something like this using grep:

    #!/usr/bin/perl -w

    use strict;

    my @array = qw(dog cat cow horse donkey chicken);
    my %items = (cat => 1, donkey =>1);

    @array = grep {not exists $items{$_}} @array;

    print "@array\n";

    __END__
    prints:

    dog cow horse chicken
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--
John.