Whilst reading the many reports about animal cruelty, negligence and abuse, I find myself screaming ‘bloody murder', and other non publishable obscenities at the sorry excuses for human beings behind this abuse.

I have recurrent dreams of torturing the abusers and teaching them a lesson once and for all. In some of my dreams the abusers either suffer a slow and painful death, or miraculously come round to see the light - they convert to my own belief that animals are to be respected, loved and taken care of as well as children should (without the compulsory schooling and duttrina of course).

After many restless and sweaty nights fighting off these dreams, I somehow found a way of calming myself down. As hard as it was, I tried to put myself in the abusers' shoes. Now let's face it, when you're like me; when you're verging on the belief that your average animal is by far better than your average human, your first instinct is to swear and wish the abuser ten times worse than that that they put the animals through; so trying to objectively see their point of view is, to say the least, easier said than done.

But I tried. Against all odds and with all my might I tried to free myself from my murderous instincts and to disconnect from my deep-set belief that animal abusers should be tortured and left out to dry in a butcher's shop.

But then, in my attempt to empathise, I wondered.....

What makes these people think that it is ok to treat an animal worse than nothing?

What could possibly allow them to sleep at night knowing that they're keeping an animal in obscene conditions?

Who, or rather what, do they think they are to put a cat in a microwave?

How can they think that it's ok to make money from dog fights?

Do they honestly think that animals are so inferior to humans?

Would they treat a human in this way if it was legal?

Is it abusive to groom a poodle beyond recognition?

Do abusers believe that unlike humans, animals have no feelings?

And is it a result of their upbringing?

Was it something that they went through that so catastrophically messed up their emotional intelligence, or are they just this way for no logical reason whatsoever?

Is it because the law doesn't put animals at par with humans?

Why doesn't the law put animals at par with humans?

Are they so self-centred that they believe that we're the only live objects worthy of respect and care?

How come we treat convicted villains better than totally innocent dogs?

Why did it take so long to realise that there is absolutely nothing educational about drugged up bears performing tricks in circuses?

If it's not ok for humans to be kept in captivity, why is it ok for animals to be bred, inter-bred and over-bred without control?

When people claim to be animal lovers, how come they go for pure pedigree over-bred pets instead of adopting stray ones that desperately need a home?

How would fur-coat owners feel if they were attacked and killed for their fur, just like this: www.alisonbezzina.com/i-want-your-fur/

Needless to say, that after all this thinking, I ended up none the wiser from when I started this painful process. I feel just as angry and frustrated as before, and I've concluded that in the case of animal cruelty, empathising with the abusers just does not work.

Those of us who are not sick or depraved enough to gain pleasure from causing pain to animals often refer to those who do as pigs. But calling animal abusers, circus organisers, fur producers and foie gras eaters, pigs, does nothing more but insult pigs all over the world.

The truth is - the law must get its act together. A slap on the wrist and a silly fine is not going to stop these degenerates from burning dogs, starving horses and forcing majestic elephants to balance on stools. But as Winston Churchill once said ...‘Truth is incontrovertible, ignorance can deride it, panic may resent it, malice may destroy it, but there it is.'