Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1531100
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 5 JANUARY 2025 4 INTERVIEW Janice Chetcuti: 'We never had an animal rights directorate taking enforcement seriously' Janice Chetcuti is passionate about animal rights but the Nationalist MP laments the lack of enforcement of ex- isting legislation. One of the issues she raises is linked to the new rules introduced last year con- cerning bully breed dogs. She disagrees with the changes making non-pedigree bully dogs illegal to own. She believes that rather than obliging pet owners to have pedigree dogs, the en- forcement of legislation already in force would have helped curb the number of abandoned bully breed dogs. "We already have laws in place to pro- tect these dogs, but unfortunately, we never had an animal rights directorate which takes enforcement seriously," she tells me. Welcoming new laws regulating board- ing kennels, Chetcuti insists these regu- lations were needed. However, she says further amendments such as banning underground garage complexes from being used to house animals would have made the legislation even better. Our discussion veers to the realm of party politics and I ask her about the PN's lack of support in southern districts, which has tanked over the past decade or so. Coming from Zejtun, which is part of the Third District, the PN MP says a soul-searching exercise within the party has helped make it more appealing to voters from the area. "I am not saying that what it [the PN] was doing was wrong, but it is keeping up with the times," Chetcuti says. With an assisted dying White Paper in the works, as revealed by MaltaToday last year, the MP calls for a mature dis- cussion which brings different views and opinions together. She says the PN has already launched an internal discussion on the matter, but refrains from saying what its stance will be. Opposition spokesperson for animal rights Janice Chetcuti sits down with Karl Azzopardi to discuss new legislation on bully breed ownership, the prolonged closure of the animal hospital and assisted dying Let's not allow boarding kennels to be permitted in underground garages. They tried to ridicule me when I raised the issue in parliament, and the minister said even people live underground.