Students' kindness to animals to be rewarded

St Edward's College will this year be rewarding five students for their kindness to animals in its mission to create an awareness on the number of abandoned pets and animal cruelty.

The college will hand out five "animal awareness prizes" and an overall "kindness to animals shield" to the most deserving student during its annual prize day tomorrow.

"The most important thing is not that we might be the first school doing this, but that other schools will follow suit and introduce these awards in their prize giving day. We can only battle cruelty through education," a college spokesman said.

The college is working to highlight the importance of educating young generations about animals - too many cases of cruelty to animals have involved youngsters in the past.

The prize for the junior school will be awarded to Adel Mizzi who will be presented with an animal encyclopedia and two care handbooks for cats and dogs.

Neil Tabone, Jonathan Mairangas and Benjamin Chetcuti from the college's middle school will also receive these books for their work in instilling more awareness about animals.

The animal awareness prize for the senior school will go to Colin Bonello.

The most coveted prize, the shield, will go to Benjamin Chetcuti, a great animal lover who led by example and also adopted a stray dog. During this year's animal awareness day he gave a very interesting talk on how to look after snakes.

The international animal organisation PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) has sent a letter to the five students congratulating them on their admirable work.

"You five young people have made a stand and have shown that treating animals with compassion is so very important and we congratulate you all on being worthy animal awareness prize winners," Kate Fowler said in the name of all the staff at PETA office in London.