The aggressive attack by a firebrand zoo owner on the newly appointed Animal Welfare Commissioner was one of the most controversial episodes of this week.

Anton Cutajar, the outspoken owner of a Siggiewi zoo that was built illegally but was later sanctioned, took aim at Alison Bezzina after the latter expressed her opinion on the caging of and petting of wild animals. Naturally, Bezzina disagrees with the practice, as do we.

Cutajar went into a hissy fit recently when Animal Rights Minister Anton Refalo unveiled new draft regulations that would ban the petting of tiger and lion cubs at Malta’s ‘zoos.’

Incredibly, the draft regulations were updated a few hours after they were uploaded on the ministry’s website, and animal petting was suddenly and magically unbanned. People can now pay to have their photo taken with a tiger cub as long as a vet is present to supervise the process, according to the current draft.

Refalo’s ministry said the wrong version of the regulations had been uploaded, despite the fact that he had gone on record (on camera) stating that the practice would be outlawed. “There has to be a distance between the animal and people,” the minister said, when specifically asked about the topic.

As Bezzina put it in an interview with this newsroom, the sudden change was “suspicious”. She is urging the government to revert to the ban.

The sudden change in regulations looks very fishy indeed. It feels very much like the government has buckled under the pressure of zoo owners like Cutajar, who claims that he enjoys a very close relationship with people in power. He made sure to tell us about it when he threatened Bezzina that he would write a letter “to who I need to send them” and get her removed.

The government is not doing much to dispel this feeling. Refalo, stayed away from the controversy and only commented publicly after he was asked to do so by The Malta Independent. Even then, he said the government backs Alison Bezzina and said people should comment “within limits,” but he did not go as far as to condemn Cutajar for his threats.

Once again, it seems like this is a case of businesspeople holding politicians by the scruff of their neck and calling the shots.

The petting of exotic animals is a barbaric practice that has no place in a civilised country, especially one that boasts of having strengthened animal welfare laws. The government needs to be brave and ban it outright.

There will always be strong opposition to such decisions. A few years ago, the authorities faced similar backlash by circus owners when animal performances were outlawed. Today, animal circuses have become a thing of the past in Malta, thankfully condemned to the dustbin of history. We must now take another courageous step and ban the exploitation of animals completely.

The breeding of wild animals should only be carried out under strict professional supervision and should only be allowed for the purpose of conservation. Conservation means to help repopulate that species in the wild, not in cages.

The breeding of tigers and lions to sell them to some middle eastern Sheikh or Russian oligarch to be kept in private collections should be banned completely. According to international reports, Malta is among a few European countries where this is still allowed to happen.

If zoos are to remain, the authorities must ensure that the animals are kept in adequate conditions that are as similar as possible to their natural habitat. Petting by young children and cameras flashing in their faces all day is not part of that habitat.

People like Cutajar will obviously complain, because for them, this is a money-making business. But animals are not there for our enjoyment or profit. Countless scientific reports state that the constant handling of young animals can be very detrimental to their wellbeing. This forced socialisation defeats the very purpose of conservation, as it makes the animals dependent on human beings.

And let’s not use the excuse of their therapeutical advantages. Domestic animals are good enough for that. Keeping tigers in cages so that you can charge €10 per photo taken is cruel and unnecessary.

Cutajar says that this is all personal – that animal rights activists, the PN and the media are turning against him because of his views on migration. This is a lie. He is playing the martyr.

We are not advocating here for the closure of his zoo only. What we are calling for is an end to a cruel practice that is only beneficial for people like him, who profit from the misery of animals.

Cutajar has now offered to give Bezzina advice from his “vast experience in exotic animals.”

The only advice he should give is to stop animal exploitation altogether and to start teaching our younger generations that lions and tigers belong on the plains of Africa and the jungles of Asia, not in some metal cage in Siggiewi.