Coalition sticks to its guns

The Malta Animal Rights Coalition yesterday branded as "ridiculous" the SPCA's denial of the existence of a major animal welfare issue, which, it said, was at the heart of the unanimous decision to expel it from the coalition.

"How else do you describe a situation in which decisions regarding the unnecessary killing of animals are taken by the society," the coalition asked.

SPCA spokesman John Micallef denied that the society killed animals unnecessarily, adding that "the coalition knows it".

"If the coalition has any evidence of unnecessary killing, it should have brought it up in the first place at coalition meetings," he said.

The coalition on Tuesday announced that it had expelled the SPCA, which subsequently denied the accusations made against it, stating it was totally incorrect to say that the society was unable or unwilling to resolve a major animal welfare issue.

The coalition yesterday said Mr Micallef was "mixing up Michael Pearson and the coalition".

It said the latter was composed of five NGOs and that Mr Pearson was one of the members of the committee, representing World Animal Conscience.

It said the SPCA had referred to private conversations between their president and Mr Pearson and could not understand why.

As private discussions they could not be presented as coalition meetings, it said.