Someone once said that the more he knew the man the more he preferred his dog; a rather strange declaration for it is indeed common knowledge that one's dog grows to resemble its master in more ways than one.
In Malta animal welfare is targeted to the treatment of man's favourite domestic animals, dogs and cats, followed by horses and donkeys, birds and, if they're lucky, farmyard animals of which the less said the better.
Man's best friend in Malta has come a long way since the time when one only kept a dog for hunting purposes.
Today the ownership of pedigree dogs carries status and hubris while many families have realised the psychological importance of keeping domestic pets; the ones who don't actually resort to buying their children Japanese electronic travesties that need feeding and cleaning but that cannot be cuddled or played with, a sterile alternative that does not augur well for the future.
It would be far better for these parents to go to the SPCA or the Abandoned Animals Association and adopt a puppy or a kitten and receive unconditional love in return.
There are, in the wake of the long-established SPCA (ex RSPCA), plenty of NGOs like the AAA that work hard to achieve better animal welfare. Recently, a petition raised by the AAA, consisting of 40,000 signatures, was presented to the Minister for Rural Affairs and the Environment, George Pullicino, by MP Jeffery Pullicino Orlando.
A total of 40,000 individuals out of a population of 400,000 is a surprisingly high percentage of people to sign a petition that calls for an around-the-clock animal ambulance service, an animal hospital and better enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act. Evair Grech, 15, spearheaded the campaign and was responsible for collecting a good number of the signatures.
Civilisation and educational standards can be gauged by the way animals are treated. It is very obvious that the more primitive a people is the more indifferently its animals are treated. In primitive societies animals are there to do a job or to provide food; love for animals was something unheard of till prophets and wunderkinds like Buddha and St Francis of Assisi appeared on the scene stating in no uncertain terms that animals are part of God's creation and we must love and respect them as such. In Malta we still hear of horror stories involving animals that are not only abandoned but ill treated and sometimes savagely tortured.
Cruelty to animals stems from the time when a boy catches a fly and pulls off its wings. That must be watched out for and nipped in the bud. In a country where bird life is regularly blasted to smithereens, it is difficult to explain to many children whose fathers, uncles and grandfathers carry their shotguns around with macho pride, that those same birds that are slaughtered every year are the same ones that St Francis preached to and glorified in his Canticle of the Sun.
Animal welfare should not only embrace the domestic animals but also the ones that have even less of a voice and less appeal; animals which, because of their economic value, are condemned to live in pens and batteries for all of their brief lives till they end up in our pans and ovens.
Whatever the outcome, the petition is a step in the right direction and a sign that every NGO that has animal welfare at heart should welcome and lend maximum cooperation to.