Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1515804
of late… this is from an article dat- ed March 14, 2023: "The number of abandoned dogs found on Malta's streets has risen rapidly in the last six months, with insiders fearing the situation is reaching crisis point. A source within the Animal Wel- fare Department said the number of abandoned dogs is 'spiralling out of control', and it is becoming the norm to encounter FOUR TO SIX ABANDONED DOGS PER DAY!" [my emphasis]. I need hardly add, naturally, that the figures underscored above were not exactly a 'fluke', when it comes to Malta's animal wel- fare statistics. As long ago as the early 2000s (or thereabouts), I remember writing articles for the Malta Independent, about the ex- act same problem: then as now, animal shelters were woefully under-equipped to deal with the scale of the problem they were facing… and the job of actually rescuing abandoned animals fell mostly – as it still does today – on the shoulders of a handful of vol- untary, non-governmental (and mostly under-staffed, and un- der-funded) organisations. The bottom line, I suppose, is that at no time in the past 20 years, has the Animal Welfare sector not faced some form of 'crisis' or oth- er; specifically, when it comes to the 'accommodation and reloca- tion of abandoned animals'. And at moments, these crises took the form of full-on 'life-or-death' emergencies, too... In July 2022, for instance, the Malta Society for the Protection and Care of Animals (MSPCA) made a public call for help, be- cause a 'storm' – and please note, I'm not being metaphorical. A 'storm': you know, 'rain, wind, lightning, thunder'; that sort of thing – threatened the lives of 'many helpless animals'. Meanwhile, just a couple of weeks ago, the same MSPCA raised the alarm once more: only much more urgently, this time… as its 100-year-old Floriana prem- ises are in dire need of refurbish- ment; and there is no room in the rest of Malta's animal shelters – or even in private homes, it seems – to serve as temporary accommo- dation, for all the 'cats and dogs' it currently houses. Clearly, then, the crisis described above has continued to 'spiral out of control', throughout the past year… reaching a situation where practically all Malta's animal rights NGOs are now resorting to social media, to complain about the 'inactivity' of the Animal Wel- fare Department... and in particu- lar, the 'detachment' of Animal Rights Minister, Anton Refalo. And - for the third time – I once again have to add: 'not without good reason'. After all, we are talking about a crisis that falls very squarely within Minister Refalo's portfolio of responsibilities; and, what's more, a crisis that could very easily have been avoided, altogether... had Refalo ever de- livered on his government's 2017 electorate promise, to build a 'Na- tional Animal Sanctuary' – spe- cifically, described as a 'rehoming centre' – in Ta' Qali. But what do you know? Sev- en years after that promise was made, there is still no 'National Animal Sanctuary' anywhere to be seen: either in Ta' Qali, or an- ywhere else on these islands. The last we heard of this project was in June 2023: when Antone Refalo candidly admitted, in an interview with Newsbook, that the govern- ment was still 'drawing up the plans'. Nor was that the only govern- ment promise, on the subject of animal welfare, that failed to ever actually materialise all these years later. In a statement issued in re- sponse to that same 2013 inter- view, animal welfare NGOs "listed a long line of unkept promises […] including legislation to regulate breeders, legislation to regulate and licence pet sitters, groomers and trainers, and legislation on zoos that was issued, and with- drawn immediately after protests from zoo owners…" And yet, throughout all this time… where has Minister Anton Refalo actually been, while this crisis was 'spiralling out of con- trol'? And where is he still hiding today, for that matter? Why, what a silly question to ask! Look, he's standing right there: next to where the National Animal Sanctuary is supposed to be standing (but clearly isn't); or there, in Malta's Code of Laws… where the new rules are supposed to be regulating 'zoos, and pet sit- ters, and groomers, and trainers' (but clearly aren't)… and above all, THERE: the same place where all those countless other 'unkept government promises' slink off to die, the moment they serve no further purpose to the people who originally uttered them… 'Nowhere to be seen'. (Just like all the 'moral progress' this nation never made, when it comes to 'the way its animals are treated'…) maltatoday | SUNDAY • 11 FEBRUARY 2024 OPINION 11 Where has Minister Anton Refalo actually been, while this crisis was 'spiralling out of control'? And where is he still hiding today, for that matter? Snoops (left), a white dog with black markings, was found injured, and x-rays (above) showed he was peppered with lead balls fired from a shotgun