Summer is now with us and we need to look into how we can make life somewhat easier for our four-legged friends – especially those that have no proper home of their own and therefore aimlessly walk the streets in the hope of finding kind people to help them ease the hardship they face. Stray animals are always vulnerable, but the more so when the natural elements are at their worst – and certainly, the scorching summer sun does not help these poor creatures.

People would therefore be doing a great deal for stray cats and dogs if they could remember the following points:

Cats and dogs would appreciate finding some fresh water to drink from while they are roaming about, day and night. Even proper food (especially dry food) would be a godsend to these poor creatures. Let us admit it – it does nobody any harm to leave a plastic container of fresh water outside our doors every day, does it?

For those who own pets: the roof is no place to keep animals – especially dogs. During the scorching hours of the summer’s day, the roof of one’s residence is no place to keep a dog. A pet’s place is within the family, within the home. Please, keep your pet away from the summer heat, with plenty of water available – which is far more important than food, actually – and hopefully a nice, comfortable and cool place for it to rest in.

A word about karozzini: Summer brings a lot of stress on beasts of burden that work throughout the worst possible hours of the summer’s day – I am here referring to the karozzini horses. Many Maltese people, in their sheer ignorance and narrow-mindedness, would dismiss any sort of compassion towards horses by brining in lame excuses about traditions and so on. We live in the 21st century and we cannot continue waffling about this and that tradition when we speak about animal hardship. Even slavery was a tradition in the Americas – yet, civilised man finally triumphed over the so-called “traditionalists”. Karozzini should NOT be allowed to work during certain hours of the day; the karozzini horses should not be subjected to the elements when they are “parked” in Valletta and elsewhere; karozzini should not be driven by inexperienced and unqualified cab drivers.

But most of all, the government should decide which authority has the competence of regulating these karozzini. As far as I know, the last government official to speak about the matter was former Minister Ninu Zammit who lamented that karozzini were under no authority and that no authority was willing to have the said karozzini within its remit.

Help in animal-sanctuaries: Let us remember those poor people who tirelessly work in animal-sanctuaries all year long. They are few and the work involved is enormous. It becomes all the more so when volunteers go on a well-deserved holiday and the work is passed on to even fewer workers who often have to dig into their pockets to make ends meet. The least we can do is to offer some help ourselves: please, contact one of the animal sanctuaries in Malta – or Gozo – and see what kind of work they can offer you. Even our students can be gently coaxed and encouraged to dedicate a couple of hours a week / fortnight on voluntary work, helping out at these sanctuaries.

As regards transparency of government funds, in previous writings I have been asking the government to supply to the general public a detailed financial report of how the money budgeted towards animal awareness has been spent. To date, in spite of many promises, no financial explanation has been forwarded to the general public about how so much money was spent. I repeat what I wrote some time ago: if we insist that individuals working in animal-welfare should be transparent and accountable with their funds, it is the Government that should be a leading example and give us minute descriptions of how the by-now famous e175,000 have been spent.

Animal-emergency and ambulances are another urgent appeal from my side. There is the need of setting up a proper animal-emergency service. To date, as far as I know, there are no animal-ambulances available in order to help both animals as well as people who want to help injured animals, yet are unable to do so because there aren’t the proper mechanism and procedures in place. I sincerely urge the Government to urgently look into this matter and help to set up such an animal-emergency service, with round-the-clock, 24/7, user-friendly services. Animals are vulnerable and if we have the well-being of these animals at heart, we should leave no stone unturned to do something about it. Tomorrow is already one day too late.

Finally a consciousness campaign is needed. Now that summer is here, it is to be augured that the authorities would plan a serious campaign in favour of animal well-being. This campaign should not only be school-based but basically should bring in many authorities and bodies, not least of all the local councils who should also be leading by example and encourage people to be kind to animals – and not the contrary, as it often happens.

I sincerely wish all animals a happy and safe summer, away from stress, illness... and death.

Franco Farrugia

Pietà