Malta finally has a 24 hour, seven days a week animal care centre. The centre, which is being run as a public private partnership, is located in Ta’ Qali and gives real recourse to pet owners and the owners of working animals to seek treatment at any given time, any day of the week.

The previous situation, with an emergency vet being on call, was pathetic to say the least. One first had to find out who was on call and then try to track them down and set up an appointment. By then, a distressed pet or beast of burden would have definitely deteriorated and could even expire.

The PM and the Resources Minister attended the opening (read story on page 2), where both said that pets and animals were part of Maltese culture. We beg to differ. While great strides have been made in the past couple of years, we can never describe ourselves as being a country of animal lovers. Make no mistake, there are many people who have pets and look after them as one of the family, but equally, there are others who are terribly cruel to animals.

One only has to look at the sterling work being carried out by the Animal Welfare Department to see that there are still many people who do not treat animals well at all. We have seen illegal abattoirs, starved cattle, dogs infested with lice and mange – tied up and left in the sun without water. We see dog owners leaving their pets on roofs without shelter in the baking summer heat, we see cats slaughtered, declawed and left to fend for themselves in the ‘wild’… the list goes on and on.

We agree with politicians when they say that things have improved, and we especially agree where they encouraged parents to get pets for their children and make the kids themselves take responsibility for the animals.

But we can never agree with the claim that we are some sort of animal loving haven. We are not. It is easy to see. Dogs still roam the streets, the neutering campaign has never been fully implemented. All the while stray (and pet) cats and dogs get poisoned by individuals who seek to get rid of them.

Dog and cock fighting still exists. It has been addressed, but a couple of raids during fights and the eviction of cellars and holes in the bastions does not eradicate the problem, it merely drives them underground.

Unfortunately, some members of government seem to think that loving animals and caring for them extends to nothing more than feeding them, watering them and giving them shelter. That is not a love of animals, that is merely decency. Love and care of animals means giving up your free time to do something to alleviate the problem of strays, abandoned animals and cruel conditions. It also means treating a pet as one of the family. It also means digging into your pockets to give something back.

There is a saying, which goes something along the lines of, ‘you can tell a person’s character by how they treat animals’ and this is true. Yes, we have improved and by a good margin. But there is so much more to do. The setting up of the Animal Welfare Department, the new site for the SPCA and the opening of this new care centre are giant strides. But let us stop kidding ourselves. A nation of

animal lovers we are not.