Today saw another example of good law enforcement to safeguard the health and wellbeing of the general public.
In short, the Animal Welfare Unit raided an illegal abattoir in the valley between San Gwann and Swieqi, which was housed in an illegally built farm which had been shut down some years back.
The unit found that men were about to slaughter some sheep. Other animals had already been slaughtered and it does not seem to be an isolated incident – it has happened regularly and for a number of years.
The issue at stake here is not cruelty to animals – slaughter is slaughter, provided the animals are kept well and it is done properly and humanely. The real issue at stake here is the health of the general public.
This was a very much under-the-radar operation and it is understood to have been a very cost effective way for people to put down horses and sell the meat. Goats and sheep also seemed to have been ‘on the menu’ – excuse the pun.
One sincerely doubts that the men involved observed safety standards – the amount of blood, discarded horse testicles and animal innards hidden under a pile of manure are testament to that. Whatever meat that is – diseased or not – has ended up on people’s plates and has been ingested. One also wonders what connections this abattoir has to Maltese style restaurants that serve horsemeat.
The men in question claim they had a permit to carry out animal slaughter, but this is impossible under Maltese law. The fact that veterinary certificates were found at the abattoir is also a cause for concern as it proves that vets were either in cahoots with the men, or had the wool pulled over their eyes. Whichever way, it is worrying and one hopes that the police will follow the matter up.
At least, we know that this unit follows up reports and does act on the information it either compiles itself or receives from the general public. This sort of efficiency has been lacking for some time and it is thanks to the European Union and the obligations of membership that the general public is getting a better deal.
Other examples of good enforcement included the multiple seizures of milk and ricotta which had been left out in the sun before shops opened over the summer.
Another good example to be cited is the work of the parliamentary secretariat of Jason Azzopardi which has worked hard to ensure that establishments stick to the terms of encroachment permits. The secretariat has also pushed hard to address the sore issues of caravan parks and boathouses.
Still, there is more to be done. Consumers still do not get what they deserve in Malta, especially when seeking redress from retailers; this is something the country must work on. But in order to reach a point where consumers are treated as they are in mainland Europe, we need to start somewhere.
To breed this new way of thinking into our culture, we must continue to take small steps in the right direction and instances such as these are invaluable in teaching the lesson: ‘You cannot get away with it anymore, and we are going to get tougher.’