The woman, who is not being named because she fears repercussions, said she lives in a block of flats which opens out onto a communal garden. She said that a person had put rat poison down in the garden to entice her cats into it. “One of my cats has already been poisoned with rat poison, yet there are no rats near us. How can you have mice when you have cats,” she said. She also said the person putting the poison down was simply provoking the cats to go into the garden. She said: “This is even more irresponsible because children play in the garden in question. Even though this is a private garden, no one should have the right to put poison down as it is a communal one.”

She also said that the people or person in question threw stones at the cats. “I have to keep my cats indoors and when I mentioned the removal of the poison to the person responsible, he didn’t want to know. I have been intimidated by this person at all hours of the day and it is making life a nightmare,” she said.

The woman reported the issue to the Qawra police, but got no joy. They told her that all she could contest was the ill-treatment of animals due to the stone throwing. She was told she did not have a chance of pressing forward on the poisoning. She reiterated that apart from the danger to the animals themselves, the poison could prove very dangerous to any children playing in the garden.