Leave the cats alone
On a recent occasion I was not allowed to feed the cats in a public garden. I am a regular visitor to your island and I deeply enjoy the gardens in Malta because of the cats' presence. They are looked after by associations or members of the public and...
On a recent occasion I was not allowed to feed the cats in a public garden. I am a regular visitor to your island and I deeply enjoy the gardens in Malta because of the cats' presence. They are looked after by associations or members of the public and they do attract a lot of tourists. I have seen many of them photographing the cats.
Last year, on September 8, while in the Barrakka Gardens, in Valletta, I saw a group of tourists rescuing a cat that had fallen into a fountain. One man spent an hour with the animal, just to make sure it was alright. This man was a British tourist; the man that went to recover the cat from the fountain was a young German. All this was taking place while the Maltese public was busy watching the regatta in Grand Harbour. Efforts to contact local vets proved futile during this "important date" in the Maltese calendar.
I was later informed that the cat died. This makes me stress the point that you should now try to set up a 24-hour animal clinic or an animal hospital as in most European countries.
Part of the pleasure of coming to your island is that - till my very recent visit - it was still very tolerant and allows animals to live freely. They are doing no harm at all. Instead of trying to get rid of the cats from public gardens, it would be much wiser to give some money for cats to be neutered, which keeps the population down.
Cats in Malta are part of the image of the island. If you look in the shops, you will find a lot of postcards and calendars advertising for "Malta's cats". Obviously, I am not the only one who loves animals because the postcards and calendars must have a market for otherwise they would not be printed.
Some cities are famous for their cats, like the Greek islands, Cairo, Rome and Tunis. Your tourism authorities could get in contact with the great cat photographer, Hans Sylvester, who prints books about them using his own pictures. He has already worked a lot in the Greek islands and could be much interested in coming to your island. His books attract a lot of tourists to the places he goes.