AND NOW FOR THAT SECOND LETTER...

... BROUGHT ON BY MARIO SPITERI'S FRIEND, FABIO FROM NOAH'S ARK. FABIO PREPARED THE LETTER AND CONTACTED THE MANAGERS OF THE OTHER SANCTUARIES TO JUST SIGN IT, RATHER THAN DISCUSS IT.

OF COURSE, THERE WERE SOME WHO AGREED WITH WHAT I WAS SAYING AND THEY REFUSED TO JUST 'SIGN'!

AND SO, THE LETTER BELOW WAS SIGNED BY:

NOAH'S ARK, OF COURSE
ABANDONED ANIMALS ASSOCIATION - NOT FREDDIE FENECH!
SPCA MALTA, OF COURSE! WHO DARES SEND STRAYS TO THEM ANYMORE? IT WAS IN THE NEWS TWO YEARS AGO: SO MANY CARCASSES ARRIVING FROM SPCA QUARTERS IN FLORIANA TO WASTESERV, USING SPCA VAN??? HMM .. HMMM!
SPCA GOZO - STRANGELY ENOUGH.

The following is the letter of these defenders of animals:

Working with animals

The appointment by the government of a Director of Animal Welfare Promotion and Services last year was a breath of fresh air. Particularly so for animal welfare NGOs, especially when a person with such a positive track record as Mario Spiteri was given the post.

We all know that enforcing animal welfare is a thankless job. Those who work “hands on” experience distressing situations every day. Ever since Dr Spiteri took office it was immediately evident that the tides were changing. We will not list the achievements in animal welfare during the past year, most of which have been implemented by the present Directorate of Animal Welfare. The ones that stand out are the massive neutering programme that was carried out in 2008 and the government financial assistance towards upgrading sanctuaries to acceptable standards.

Dr Spiteri’s comments on euthanasia of strays that do not find shelter (TMID, 11 March), be it in sanctuaries or private homes, may have raised eyebrows. His was an appeal to help eliminate this system. Culling by euthanasia of the canine population is a practice carried out all over Europe, where hundreds of thousands of dogs and cats are abandoned each year. This is also done here by private individuals, either at their own hands (drowning, dumping, etc.) or with the assistance of vets. It is not the general practice of the undersigned to put healthy animals to sleep. Dogs are removed from the streets when they become a danger to themselves, the public or other dogs. Stray dogs that join together as “packs” are a known hazard to the public, as has been proved again only recently in Sicily.

The sole purpose of setting up sanctuaries or shelters is to save the lives of as many dogs and cats as possible. But it is clearly evident that no matter how much space is made available in our sanctuaries we are losing the battle to accommodate all the animals that are being thrown out. The remaining choice is to let them roam the streets at risk of starvation, injury from motor vehicles and disease.

Dr Spiteri is right to appeal for sanctuary dogs to be adopted. Too few are being adopted locally and we can only make additional space in our sanctuaries by sending dogs for adoption overseas. Our members have had opportunity to assist Dr Spiteri in responding to some of the numerous reports he receives of animals in distress, even in the middle of the night.

The undersigned animal sanctuaries applaud Dr Spiteri for his sincerity in facing this mammoth problem and we stand four square behind him in his realistic comments. The animal welfare NGOs who work unselfishly to shelter abandoned dogs are finally able to work hand in hand with the government authorities.

Your readers can be assured that a number of measures are in the pipeline to improve the fate of dogs in the near future; some of these measures will hopefully also facilitate law enforcement.



Abandoned Animals Association

Noah’s Ark Animal Sanctuary

SPCA

Gozo SPCA