A zebra, christened Agostino, was born on August 3 at the Monte Kristo estates. The centre, which takes care of Agostino and many other animals including the newborn zebra’s parents, stated that one of the adult zebras was rescued from an animal circus in Naples and the other from a zoo in the Netherlands. It is cruelly ironic that the adult zebra’s offspring has now been born into captivity, especially since the centre has plans for making the animal enclosure into a public attraction.

Moviment Graffitti condemns the captivity of animals for public entertainment and cannot show sympathy with the people involved with the birth of this zebra. It is also important to mention the underlying issues behind this event. Moviment Graffitti condemns the fact that exotic animals are brought in from abroad, only to result in the breeding of that animal, leading to its inevitable confinement. Zebras, and other exotic animals from foreign countries, are not adapted to living in Malta due to limited space, climate and many other factors.

Thus, Moviment Graffitti cannot support the breeding of these animals because of the negative consequences tied to this act.

Although this is not a blatant case of animal cruelty, it is still important to take into consideration the negative repercussions of this situation. In a related note, the classification of what constitutes as animal cruelty seems to be quite blurred in Malta. According to Maltese law, the hunting and shooting of birds is not considered as animal cruelty. However, one must remember that these birds are still suffering, even if it is not seen as so in the eyes of the law.

There are many factors which amount to animal cruelty and we believe that any cruelty to animals is wrong, whether it is done intentionally or not.