If in my letter, as Ray Bezzina, communications co-ordinator of the Ministry of Rural Affairs and Environment, states (The Sunday Times, August 14), I was pointing "an accusing finger at all and sundry" then I would have included questions about marine and bird life, livestock and the lives of working animals like horses.
The questions I pose refer only to cats and dogs and to the authority responsible for them. I strongly believe that if these domestic animals have not yet reached the status that they deserve within our country then how can the same authority possibly begin to sympathise with any other members of the animal kingdom?
"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated" - wise words spoken by Mahatma Gandhi. Does the ministry deny the reality of this statement too?
The Animal Welfare Act was launched (I wouldn't say "implemented" like Mr Bezzina), the Animal Welfare Council was set up and people caught being cruel to animals can be fined heavily and even imprisoned. This is all good on paper. But are there really any facts to prove that these three strong pillars on which the ministry so proudly sets its animal welfare campaign are actually contributing to Malta's progress?
The questions I ask in my letter are the result of tangible experience working closely with most animal welfare organisations locally, dealing with injured, stray animals on our streets, reporting animal cruelty cases, rehoming abandoned cats and dogs, and discussing the lack of national planning and management in this sector.
By no means do I ask Government to take on all the problems associated with animal welfare and solve them in the blinking of an eye. It is, however, Government's responsibility to provide an effective infrastructure within which voluntary and non-voluntary animal welfare players can continue to contribute towards.
The Animal Welfare wheel is squeaking and it is high time that the authorities oil it. The animal welfare organisations are united (as Kenneth Cassar rightly pointed out in his letter of August 21). Now what?