Proletarians

On a number of occasions this summer I was alerted to the deficiencies which Maltese society still tolerates in our relations with animals. I say "relations with" intentionally, for to use the phrase "treatment of" implies already an acceptance of certain ways of handling the problem that is not good enough. Animals are an integral part of our society and should be recognised as such, with their rights firmly anchored in laws and habitual ways of doing things.

Two ladies came to my office to express their concern about the fate of the stray dogs at Tigné Point, Sliema. The MIDI project there is fast approaching the stage where major construction works will be terminated at one end of the site. This will shorten the options for a small pack of abandoned dogs that has proliferated there. These ladies had over past months taken the trouble to feed the dogs daily. Meanwhile, they had no way by which to stop the animals from breeding, which compounded the problem. Now they recognised that these animals had no viable future in the area but could find nobody to humanely get them out of there. Certainly no government agency helped, though they approached many. Could I be of assistance?

A top administrator at the SPCA spoke to me about the lack of space the society has where to house the stray and other dogs that are docked with it. They now have no alternative but to refuse new arrivals. Meanwhile, repeated approaches to the government for some decision to be taken about an alternative location where the society's kennels could be housed, have gotten nowhere. Ministers and top civil servants smile, say yes of course in a distracted way, and then immediately proceed to forget about the whole question. Still, the SPCA is criticised by the public for its "callousness" in the face of evident animal hardship, caused by homelessness and lack of care.

Somebody who works at the airport described how a stray dog wandered around runways and got squashed by an Air Malta plane as it was taking off. A colony of dogs seems to have settled around the airport perimeter, as at Tigné Point.

Outside the Grand Master's Palace in Valletta, horses continue to swelter or bake in the open sun. Back in 1997, my friend Martin Debono arranged for a shed to be built there to protect the poor animals. Some good souls clamoured that it was a blemish on the environment (!); in 1999, the Nationalist administration had it dismantled. Despite protests from well-meaning animal lovers, surely not motivated by pro-Labour sympathies, the horses have been left to suffer. At least this year, the sun was less powerful than last summer - if that is any consolation.

Protection of animals' rights remains practically a dead letter. There is a law of sorts, as usual passed by the PN for them to appear to fit on paper with the European Union's rules on this matter. For the rest, there is an absolute lack of commitment to making animals' rights effective.

To be sure, there is a lobby that does not believe the best way forward is through the recognition that animals have rights in civilised society. All they propose are regulations that determine how animals get treated, whether as pets, in the wild, as providers of meat, or as "vermin". However, unless animals are recognised by law as having rights that need to be defended like for any other "minority" or voiceless segment of society, they will remain the ultimate proletarians, raw material for exploitation by all.

Independently of the legal ideologies and other approaches used to protect the state of animals, I have come to believe that the real test of our good faith as a society is whether we deploy an effective structure to ensure that animal welfare is being safeguarded. The state does not have to multiply its resources to ensure this. It only needs to build on the fund of voluntary commitment that already exists, and that is willing to continue giving its contribution, under proper conditions of state support.

Naturally, this being Malta, animal lovers are divided among themselves. The factionalism, backbiting, splittism (to use a Maoist term) and other maladies you find in Maltese political parties, band clubs, religious fraternities and sports associations manifest themselves too among those who would organise animal "protection". This however cannot serve as a pretext for action to be stalled. The truth is that while there has been progress in eliminating the crassest forms of animal cruelty that used to be prevalent a score of years ago, new forms of cruelty or indifference to the needs of animals still abound.

The notion that animals are there to serve as proletarians in our society and that we need not feel too bad about this, is quite widespread. At best, it allows us to assume that the issue can be ignored or given low priority for some more time.

If there is an obvious scope for a meaningful private-public partnership, at national and local levels, surely it is in the area of animal rights. Rather than continuing to doze on the issue, like it does on so many other matters, the government could give the lead. On this front too, we need to show that we can tackle problems in a modern, proactive way.