The sentence of imprisonment passed by the court on a man found guilty of literally baiting a cat with fish-hooks so that these impaled themselves in the animal and had to be surgically removed, was welcomed by every human being with the slightest claim to sensitivity. The magistrate has served notice on all those who derive pleasure from inflicting pain upon animals and who wrongly believe that animals have no rights.
The Animal Rights and Welfare Act clearly lays down, among many other things, that the state recognises that every animal has the right to life, the right not to be tortured or be treated cruelly.
It also obliges the owners of animals or those in charge of animals to make sure that the physical needs of the animal, as well as its health, are looked after. It is an offence not to do so. Animal fighting is an offence, too, as is the sale of animals for the purpose of fighting.
There is a whole programme ahead for Malta in the field of animal welfare as regards poultry, livestock, domestic animals and the horrible use of animals to fight one another for owners and punters to make or lose money on the outcome of a gruesome fight. Slowly, there seems to be a growing realisation that whether the state legislated to this effect or not, animals do have rights.
That awareness will increase as the media offer extensive coverage to cases of ill-treatment and as the national curriculum provides space for education programmes on animal welfare. The SPCA has already embarked upon such a programme with visits to private and state schools where the message of care and kindness to animals was passed on to young children and much appreciated.
As in so much else, success will depend to some extent on effective law enforcement. It should be clear to everybody that the arraignment of persons guilty of offences under the Animal Welfare Act and just punishment swiftly meted out, are half the battle. The rest is education.
There is altogether too much that cruel people are allowed to get away with. The forbidding case of the race-horses, slain and burnt, is one in a long line that stretches from maimed cats to the random killing of protected birds. In between, fighting dogs bear the scars of man's inhumanity to animals. Here in particular, the ineffectiveness of the law is often remarked.
Law enforcers know that the law is broken. They know where the law is broken.
It is self-defeating to state, as some do, that a culture of cruelty exists. We believe that the overwhelming majority of men, women and children on these islands have no streak within them to justify such an all-embracing accusation.
What we do have, however, is a lack of esteem for animals in their own right. The Church has a great role to play in the education of minds, young and old. If it blesses animals, it needs also to preach the virtue of animals, their right to live in a violent-free environment, the sheer abhorrence of poor stewardship.
Magistrate Jacqueline Padovani-Grima has shown law-dispensers the way. These should now build on her effort and make the business of cruelty to animals an unprofitable pastime.