Seemingly healthy abandoned dogs are not collected by Animal Welfare, so what happens to these dogs? Most end up in animal sanctuaries around Malta but, with more and more cases of abandonment, the problem needs to be tackled by better laws and enforcement says Pierre Galea from the Association for Abandoned Animals (AAA).
Animal Welfare focuses only on attending to injured animals and does not rescue abandoned, chained or ill-kept animals if there is no breach of the law. Replying to questions from this newspaper, the Ministry for the Environment, Sustainable Development and Climate Change said: "The Animal Welfare directorate focuses on the welfare of animals, and if the directorate or any of its officers think that an animal's welfare is at stake, they will check and, if necessary, take it in. So in your case, if the dog is not micro-chipped and is healthy, Animal Welfare will not collect it unless it is injured and requires medical attention."
Galea pointed out that a large number of dogs that end up in the AAA sanctuary are from hoarding and illegal breeding. He talked about situations in which owners breeding their dogs resulted in a large number of puppies which they sometimes kept or sold. Often this breeding is not regulated by law and the situations in which the dogs are kept are frequently not ideal. The sanctuary is then called in to deal with these dogs when the owner can no longer keep them.
Most of the dogs being dumped at the sanctuary are many a time kept in such conditions. Galea mentions several cases of chained dogs and dogs kept on roofs or in small areas. Technically, at the moment, this is not illegal and as a result, nothing can be done. However, he believes that dogs which become part of the family rarely end up in situations where they are abandoned in the sanctuary.
During the interview with Galea at the sanctuary, we were able to witness first hand one of these cases. The owner of an old dog passed away and no one wanted to care for it perhaps because of his age or because he was blind. But it came as no surprise, as the dog clearly was not part of the family. The dog was obese and not well taken care of. The sanctuary sees several cases like this every day.
Unless there are better animal welfare laws, cases like these will continue to happen, Galea said. The sanctuary has worked relentlessly over the past 10 years to help change the law as well as the general mentality of society. In fact, a bill to stop the permanent chaining of dogs and the use of shock collars was presented in 2016 by PN MP Mario Galea. However, due to the change in the legislature, this bill needs to be tabled again.
Although the breeding of dogs is somewhat regulated by the law, as a licence is required if one were to breed more than four litters a year, enforcement is the problem, Galea says. A look at a local website has puppies being sold at prices which clearly do not indicate licensed breeding.
Court cases concerning animal cruelty and abuse can take several years in court, but what happens to the dog in the meantime? Until the case is concluded, the dog cannot be re-homed. So generally, by the time the case is concluded, the dog would have passed away. The only option for these animals is to either stay in the sanctuary or fostered by families which is a less than ideal situation.
Another issue that requires better enforcement is microchipping. The law requires the owner to register the dog and for a microchip to be inserted as a means of identification. The law required all owners to do so by 30 April 2012. However, Rosalind Agius also from AAA, points out that there are owners who still do not microchip their dog probably because they cannot be traced back to the owner.
In the case of injured animals, Animal Welfare picks up the animal takes it directly to APH Ltd, the animal hospital that is contracted by Animal Welfare.
Many comments on social media question the intentions of Animal Welfare when it comes to putting down injured but treatable cases. The Ministry commented that in certain situations, animals do have to be put down but this only done on the vet's decision or in serious circumstances. When asked what happens to the animals once they are treated, Animal Welfare makes a distinction between feral and non-feral cats and dogs. In the case of injured feral cats, these are released in the same area where they were caught. Dogs and non-feral cats are re-homed through intensive re-homing awareness by the Directorate and the Ministry for the Environment and Sustainable Development.
Currently, Animal Welfare is taking care of 70 dogs and 120 cats. Moreover, the directorate has agreements in place with NGOs housing strays to carry out the due diligence once they are re-homed. Between January and May 2018, the government spent €107,662 on 970 animals that were abandoned by their owners.
Although the Association of Abandoned Animals sees tear-jerking stories daily, it is not all doom and gloom. The sanctuary has taken on a number of volunteers from all different spheres of society. Although the main aim of the sanctuary is to help animals it somehow in the process ended up helping humans too.
Galea said a lonely pensioner volunteers at the sanctuary and feels like he has gained a new family. In fact, AAA will be moving to a new building soon and there are plans to house older dogs separately while also placing a few benches for the older volunteers. One of the most dedicated volunteers happens to be intellectually challenged but this does not stop her from carrying out her work in the most diligent manner. Although she is meant to be at the sanctuary at 8am, she is sometimes there as early as 6.30am. She is now being given more responsibility in feeding and taking care of the dogs. She is also learning a number of social skills by integrating with other volunteers at the sanctuary.
Other volunteers include those sentenced to doing community work, recovering drug addicts, persons with mental health issues and also students in Malta to learn English. There are also some foreign people who travel to Malta just to help at the sanctuary. Galea describes them as one family whose intention is simply to help these abandoned dogs.
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