Dogs pawed at their pens and wagged their tails as the vet checked on them at the San Franġisk animal welfare centre in Ta’ Qali yesterday.

The Animal Welfare Department works hand in hand with the San Franġisk centre, bringing about three sick or injured animals a week. Surgery on the abandoned animals taken to the centre, which was opened in 2010, is done for free, with the department only having to pay for medicine and consumables.

Rural Affairs Minister George Pullicino said that over 50,000 dogs had been microchipped so far. “As a result, the number of abandoned dogs at the centre has been declining,” he noted.

The minister said that among the 27 EU states, Malta was the only one that obliged owners to microchip their dogs. Microchipping, he said, helped prevent animal cruelty and ensured public safety because neglected animals tended to carry diseases and assemble in aggressive packs.

Over 6,000 dogs and cats have been rescued and treated since the 24/7 animal ambulance was launched, half of them being successfully adopted.

Italy, Mr Pullicino said, was lobbying for a 24/7 animal ambulance service to be set up.

“We would like to educate the Maltese. In fact, our campaign has been conducted so well that the English authorities have been in touch with us to study the way we introduced and implemented microchipping,” Mr Pullicino said.

The Government, he added, had increased enforcement, with 52 people being taken to court and charged with animal cruelty since the centre was opened.

The Government also built shelters for karrozzini horses in Valletta and planned to extend this to the horses in other places such as Sliema and Buġibba.

Twelve scholarships were awarded to students studying to become veterinarians.

The minister referred to Labour leader Joseph Muscat’s animal cemetery proposal. He said that EU rules did not allow cemeteries for animal carcasses. What could be done, however, was to cremate the animal at the incinerator and then bury the ashes.