The animals went in two by two...

Iwas watching television in a semi-comatose state on New Year's Day. I was exhausted. The fun of New Year's Eve that included Musical Bumps and other exertions plus the family and friends to lunch on New Year's Day really made me feel like what is aptly described in Maltese as a biċċa ta' l-art!

I finally finished clearing up and flopped in front of the television. There was Dawn French in her cameo role of the Vicar of Dibley. The peculiar mixture of irreverence, humour, humanity and a little soupcon of spirituality make this often repeated series on BBC Prime one that I relish. It was the episode when Geraldine decided to bless the animals; rather controversial in the relatively saintless Anglican Church, which lost the great animal-loving saint, St Anthony the Abbot, whose feast we celebrate in January on the parvis of that lovely church of St Augustine in Rabat with a very popular blessing of the animals; an unforgettable experience.

It is therefore odd that although our Christian traditions include the appreciation of animals in our lives, there are still so many instances of animal cruelty that get reported with increasing frequency. Two recent cases in Gozo are a case in point.

I simply cannot understand how anyone can maltreat an animal especially a domestic one like a cat or a dog. Trying to take a middle of the road attitude to this is, I know, opening a can of worms. I am, like many of you, also responsible, for eating other animals. We humans are a mass of contradictions. We have conflicting sentiments about practically everything and that is not restricted to western civilisation alone but permeates all others.

Maybe it is our so-called superior brain that can compartmentalise our sentiments and feelings and cordon them off with the result that we would gag in horror if presented with a slice of smoked dog but salivate were it a rib eye steak. It is in fact precisely why we have invented "other names" for pig and cow like pork and beef. We simply cannot conceive or refuse to associate the animal with the food. In this day and age food is pre-packed into unidentifiable shapes and sizes stacked on supermarket shelves in arrangements that have absolutely nothing to do with the animal itself. We have long conditioned ourselves to think that way.

Man is by nature omnivorous and therefore we have from a very young age learnt which animals are there for eating, which for working, which for hunting, which for admiring and which for playing. Our superior status as homo sapiens has developed this into a fine art: tigers and sharks to watch in awe on Animal Planet, hare and rabbit on Chasse et Peche, and dogs, cats and farm animals in the Vicar of Dibley!

But, as usual, I digress. What is needed in Malta is serous legislation that would heighten awareness of the importance of animals in our collective ecology; an Animal Protection Act that would minimise the incidence of abuse and cruelty, which is why I consulted my friend Franco Farrugia who adores animals and who made some suggestions as to how this Animal Protection Act could be formulated.

Such legislation, in his and my view, should kick off with the establishment of an Office of a Commissioner for Animals. The responsibilities of the commissioner would be the official chief guarantor and protector of the welfare of all animals in Malta. The commissioner should be given all the help necessary, especially by the police, wardens, and NGOs in the carrying out of duties. The commissioner's office would have its own staff for administrative, monitoring and even enforcement work.

I read the document that Franco kindly forwarded to me and what stuck out a mile was that it is to be made unlawful for persons to abandon animals in any manner. So many of my friends have adopted abandoned animals, myself among them, with my black and white cat Feliċ, which, for the last couple of years, has never failed to bring a smile to my face with his antics.

Those are the lucky ones, the very few who were picked off the streets.

They will never let you forget how grateful they are for saving them by giving you the precious gift of unconditional love that no human can match. Only those who have been brought up with animals can understand that.

In 52 years many, many animals have passed in and out of my life from Jilly and Pooka the boxers that guarded my pushchair to my present feline clown; all of them have enriched my life and given me far more happiness than I could give them and I hope that the government will be more actively involved in supporting the NGOs and organisations that concern themselves with animals so that the incidence of horror stories will become a rarity and one day cease altogether.

kzt@onvol.net