I have had it up to my stuffy nostrils with people constantly mixing apples and oranges in this country.

Seriously, if I hear another person using the abortion argument when the debate is about the use of animals in circuses, I might do something stupid.

Anti-abortion lobbyists are constantly hijacking animal-circus debates with cries of ‘why such a fuss over animals, when we kill our own kind all the time?’

First of all, in Malta we don’t ‘kill our own kind all the time’ because abortion is still illegal and largely unavailable, and secondly, why is it so hard to understand that we are not single cell organisms, which means that we can probably handle more than one cause at a time?

Whoever knows me will tell you that I’m not one against comparing arguments, in fact it’s a speciality I relish in;  I love drawing links from one scenario to another, but I have to say that arguing against abortion in the midst of an animal circus debate, verges on the ridiculous.

Can you imagine if animal lovers had to hijack pro-life debates with arguments of excessive cat neutering and dog grooming?

If I were writing in Maltese at this point I’d be typing in the words lettuce and flatulence in close proximity, but thankfully this is an English paper so I’ll gracefully move on to a more sanitary discussion.

It seems that the only Government entity that animal lovers like me can turn to for help is having a bit of an identity crisis.

As Fr Joe Borg already pointed out in his blog, the Animal Rights Parliamentary Secretariat is busy applying for a derogation to allow bird trapping in the autumn.

How in the world does this constitute safeguarding animal rights?

If Roderick Galdes thinks that a derogation to allow more bird killing is in any way going to improve animal rights in Malta, then he needs his head checked sooner rather than later.

But that’s not all; the same secretariat for ‘animal rights’ is also busy launching a consultation process on circus animals to eventually decide whether Malta should ban animal use in circuses or not.

Excuse me, but what’s there to consult really?

The use of animals in circuses surely constitutes far less rights for animals than the ban of animals in circuses, doesn’t it? 

Any organisation with the name ‘Animal Rights’ in it should not be opening the debate on circus animals because the debate has been going on for ages, the arguments have been made ad nauseum, and the conclusion is bright and clear -  animal circuses deprive animals of their rights, period.

The only role the Secretariat for Animal Rights should have in this, is that of standing strong on one very far side of the debate shouting ‘ban, ban, ban’.