The police and the animal welfare unit are to be praised for the way they handled a complaint about a pure dog breeder in Birkirkara on Monday.

It turns out that a breeder was keeping some 44 animals in conditions which they described as being “on the edge of complete negligence.”

In the end, the unit told the breeder that he had to improve the living conditions of the dogs or they would be taken away from him. Some might argue that the dogs should have been taken off him, but what then? A quick drive to find some new owners, maybe give a couple to the police K-9 unit and what else? They would obviously have to be put down.

The message which was sent on Monday was a clear one: “If you are going to breed animals, keep them in good conditions or we will swoop down on you in force and take them away.”

It has now become clear, fines, in cases like this, are not the answer. No matter how hefty, if a breeder was to get a new stud and bitch, he would recoup that fine from one female puppy.

The answer is most definitely a threat to confiscate and to confiscate if matters do not improve. By confiscating a person’s dogs, you could be damaging his pockets by tens of thousands of euros in lost sales and wasted time.

It must also be pointed out that there are cases where it is a matter of education. There are some pet owners, cats, dogs, whatever, who simply do not know enough about their animals to realise that something is wrong.

A case in point was one a year or so back when inspectors were called in to investigate a case of neglect – only to find a well-fed and much loved dog with grotesquely long claws. The reason: Simple, the owner was elderly and could not take it for decent walks. In a case like that, it’s simple; just point the person in the right direction.

We should not be quick to judge. There are many forms of cruelty to animals. One of them comes from love of the same said animal. Many pet owners will keep taking their pets to the vet’s when it is clear to someone outside the ‘family’ that the pet is clearly on its last legs and should be put down.

Yet, owners resist and resist believing that they can keep animals going despite chronic arthritis, kidney failure and many other ills. What we must always remember with animals is that they are not humans. They have specific needs, and most importantly, they cannot talk to you to tell you what is wrong. Take a Husky dog, for instance. A ‘good’ owner will tell you that he takes care of his dog by putting it in an air conditioned room all summer... 24-7. That is not being kind at all. A dog needs to be out and about, walking around with his ‘pack’ of humans. Many cases are of ill-judgment rather than all out cases of ill-treatment.

Of course, we will always have sick individuals amongst us who will deliberately be cruel to animals for kicks, but the key is education and thinking before doing. Shutting dogs in a garage without adequate ventilation and having others on a roof with a fan is just not the way to do it, as Monday’s case shows.