A woman who looks after a number of cats in an Attard public garden has been asked to remove the strays because the local council insists they pose a health hazard.
However, the animal welfare authorities said the cats had a right to stay there unless the Health Department declared them a hazard, which had not happened.
Wenza Micallef, who has been looking after the 28-cat colony of Ġnien Stazzjon for about a decade, received a legal letter from the Attard council warning her to relocate the cats.
"They are not mine but I love them as though they are... But I have nowhere to take them. I can't take them home and sanctuaries are full," she said as she petted Ġinu, one of the strays.
Ms Micallef, who lives in Attard, explained that when she first started looking after the cats there were only about eight strays but they had now reached almost 30.
"They are all neutered, so their generation should eventually die out. But the problem is people keep dumping unwanted cats and kittens here so, in reality, the numbers never drop," she explained.
Local council executive secretary Marica Mifsud said people kept dumping cats in the garden because they knew Ms Micallef would look after them.
The council was insisting the animals were removed because of the filth generated by their food and urine.
This was a health hazard to children who played on the swings in the garden, she said, adding that the urine had led to the uprooting of two old trees and could "contaminate the water table".
Apart from that, Ms Mifsud added, the cats caused considerable damage to the garden furniture of a bungalow that neighboured the public garden.
Animal Welfare Department director Mario Spiteri said the cats had a right to remain there unless it was proven they were a public threat or if the health authorities declared them a hazard.
If that resulted, he said, then Ms Micallef would be held responsible since animal welfare laws stipulated that whoever looked after an animal automatically assumed responsibility.
Environmental Health director John Attard Kingswell said the department had not received complaints about the cat colony.
"We usually do not consider cat colonies a health hazard but more of a nuisance, unless a medical practitioner certifies that the presence of such cats is causing a public health risk," he said.
Determining whether cats posed a health hazard, he said, depended on the number of animals, whether the area was kept clean, whether any cat food was leftover and on any medical conditions of neighbours.
Dr Spiteri warned that any tactics that harmed the cats, such as poisoning, were illegal as was dumping unwanted animals in the garden.
"The idea is that, according to law, animals cannot be harmed in any way unless they are a public threat," Dr Spiteri said.