Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1093354
24 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 17 MARCH 2019 OPINION Raphael Vassallo And we call animals 'wild'... I was about to headline this article: 'It really is a jungle out there'… but then I got a dis- tinct feeling of deja-vu. Didn't I already use that headline once before? And wasn't the accom- panying article also about how Malta's planning and 'animal welfare' authorities seem to be in collusion with an entirely illegal trade in exotic/endan- gered wild animals…? So I did, as a quick Inter- net search confirms. It was in November 2016; and the article was about the Planning Authority's astonishing deci- sion to retro-actively sanction an illegal, unlicensed, yet fully operational 'zoo' in Siggiewi. This small excerpt should give you a rough idea: "[Noah's Ark Zoo], which includes a white lion, two Siberian tigers, a black panther, monkeys, zebras, reindeer and emus, was irregularly developed over a 10,565 square metre site – the area of two football grounds – in a site known as Ta' Bur ix-Xewk in Siggiewi..." 'Irregularly developed', in this context, means that the zoo had been conceived, built, and eventually stocked with wild/ endangered animals… all with- out bothering to even apply for a planning permit. So much so, that the owner/developer went on to apply to have it sanc- tioned in February 2014: by which time, the whole shebang was already up and running. No prizes for guessing how that decision went in the end. For one thing: Noah's Ark Zoo is still open for business today. If you want to pay for the privilege of watching a psycho- logically traumatised Siberian tiger, pacing miserably about in a confined, mostly-concrete environment, with not so much as a tree or a patch of grass to break the monotony… well, you can (though person- ally, I'd be damned if I under- stood the attraction.) For another: had the applica- tion-to-sanction been rejected, the Noah's Ark zoo would have been forced to close down; and because 'lions, tigers and panthers' are not exactly the easiest pets to rehome… we would have had a full-blown animal welfare emergency on our hands. But like I said, this was the substance of an article I wrote two years ago. If I bring it up again today, it's only because the same pattern just keeps repeating itself in this coun- try, over and over again. 'First break the law… then get the authorities to retro-actively le- galise your illegal actions.' And the bigger the illegality, the bigger the practical problems involved in enforcing the law… so the likelier you are to even- tually get your crime 'Okayed' by the authorities. 'Noah's Ark zoo' is, in fact, just a larger-scale version of a much more widespread trend, which now also extends to household pets. This week, photos emerged of a big cat – which eventually turned out to be a North American moun- tain lion – kept in what seems to be a tiny (and completely bare) rooftop cage in Fgura. Yet when the Animal Welfare department was alerted to this appalling act of animal cruelty – not to mention an affront to global conservation efforts: the mountain lion being on the verge of extinction (the Eastern subspecies was in fact declared extinct just this year) – its response was that… there's 'nothing illegal', because the animal is 'registered'. Erm… excuse me for point- ing out the obvious, but that's the crux of the entire prob- lem, right there. It's not that the owner doesn't have all the necessary paperwork to justify owning a mountain lion (though perhaps it should be… more of this in a sec); it is that an adult mountain lion is being kept in conditions that would definitely be illegal, if it were a dog. Funny, isn't it? We live in a country where there are laws against keeping your pet dog caged or chained on the roof… but your pet mountain lion? An animal which needs infi- nitely more space and exercise than a dog? That's perfectly OK. In fact, you can keep one in a chicken wire cage on the roof in the middle of a densely populated urban environment – with nothing to climb on, no greenery, not the ghost of any attempt to replicate its natural habitat in any way – and as far as the Animal Welfare Directo- rate is concerned… no problem whatsoever. So I suppose they'd see noth- ing wrong with me keeping an entire pride of lions locked away in an underground cellar, without ever seeing the light of day… or how about a small herd of endangered White Rhinos, confined to an empty swimming pool? It doesn't really matter what endangered animals you keep, or how/ where you keep them…. as long as you can produce all the necessary importation certifi- cates on demand, you can keep any animal you like, in what- ever lousy, substandard condi- tions you bloody well choose. And they have the temerity to call themselves the 'Animal Welfare' department. (Note: I'd be happy to suggest a change of name… but all the examples coming to my head right now are too rude to publish). All the same, however: before any of this happened, there was (and still is) the shocking case of the equally illegal Mon- tekristo Zoo in Hal Farrug, limits of Siggiewi. This equally illegal establish- ment also houses tigers and other big cats… and it is like- wise still allowed to operate, even though: a) it was never licensed as a zoo to begin with; and b) at least two children have been injured in the past three years, in separate maul- ing incidents involving tigers. There is, after all, more than just 'animal welfare' at stake here. Zoos can be dangerous places even at the best of times: just last week, someone got mauled while trying to take a 'selfie' too close to a black jaguar's cage… at an otherwise fully li- censed and above-board zoo in Arizona. Two years earlier, an adult gorilla named Harambe was shot and killed after a small child fell into its Cincin- nati zoo enclosure. Both incidents took place in professionally administered zoos which conform to all the legal prerequisites. Just imag- ine how much likelier they are to occur in an establishment like Montekristo: where the management is so hopelessly clueless, that it even allowed …as long as you can produce all the necessary importation certificates on demand, you can keep any animal you like, in whatever lousy, substandard conditions you bloody well choose