I refer to what Mario Spiteri, Animal Welfare director, wrote in his letter (TMID 13 April). I do not need to reply in detail because my letter (TMID, 11 April) serves, to my mind, as an anticipation to what he wrote subsequently.

So I have only a few things to add, mainly:

I did not attack Dr Spiteri personally – I merely took him to task over a statement that he made about killing dogs and which I found very distasteful, coming from him. If he considers that as a personal attack, well, so be it.

I admit, and I do this with great pleasure and to my satisfaction and “not to my chagrin” – because after all, my interest is purely in animals – that I hear that Dr Spiteri does, in fact, go round to answer calls of animals in distress. Recently, I have heard of people who are animal lovers and who, like myself, are in the forefront in animal-care, who told me how helpful and supportive the director was in certain problems that they faced every now and again. This is to his credit.

I will not be perturbed by his constant way of arrogantly trying to put me in a bad light by questioning my credentials in animal welfare. Heaven forbid should all true animal lovers and carers require his blessing and acknowledgement.

Contrary to what he says about me, I have nobody above me to hold back my hands from doing what I wish to do within my remit. I sing my own song, not that of others.

Heaven forbid if we are now going to reduce the office of Director of Animal Welfare to mere administrative witch-hunts to find who is “making money out of the misery of animals”. Of course, I really hope that all such people would be brought to justice – but by the competent court and by no other people’s court, as is the case at the moment (perhaps to alienate people from similar, albeit more serious, issues at hand and about which nothing much is being said).

Till then, every person is presumed innocent.

It appears that in the past two weeks, “transparency” is the top priority in the animal welfare department. But transparency should start from those administering the people’s own coffers: the government should serve as a beacon for all others to follow. To encourage Dr Spiteri in this and his ministry’s quest for “transparency”, perhaps the public could be given a very minutely-detailed account of how money within the Animal Welfare Department, both during Dr Spiteri’s remit as well as before, was spent in favour of stray animals. In my previous letter, I referred to the money described as having been dedicated to the neutering programme. Perhaps he could enlighten us in this regard so that we would have a clear example of what government means by “transparency”.

Finally, I neither require, nor expect, Dr Spiteri’s advice on how to dedicate my spare time – indeed, continuing to write about animal awareness in Malta and Gozo will continue to be my priority, along with looking after whole colonies of cats and helping animal sanctuaries in whatever way possible.

However, since he was so kind as to offer me advice, perhaps I, in turn, would seriously advise him to update himself on the art and finesse of public relations.

Franco Farrugia

Pietà