Once again this January, three wise men who journey yearly to the Bethlehem village in Għajnsielem will be travelling on horseback. No camels are involved.
Despite tradition, no ‘ships of the desert’ are to feature in the family Christmas pageant, and that may be the wisest choice, after all.
Camels are known to be wily, cantankerous and downright dangerous at times – especially during the mating season. Although gentle by nature they are inconsistent in their reaction, more temperamental and less predictable than horses.
Situations that could panic a horse will scarcely cause any concern for a camel although they seem to take mistreatment more personally than horses do. No matter how well cared for, keeping a single camel can be a cruelty as they become insecure and bad-tempered if not part of a herd.
A former camel owner who loved the animals deeply was killed by her pet on her Texas ranch earlier this year. She mistakenly and fatally believed that if raised with loving care, camels would not be dangerous to their owners. Some in the community were outraged when the camel was put down, asking why the animal should die because it did not act like a pet should.
Locking up these creatures and then killing them when they behave according to instinct seems wildly unfair. No matter how tame or domesticated they may seem, animals revert strongly to their instincts whenever they are agitated, frightened, hungry or unwell.
A false sense of security, on the part of both zoo staff and members of the public, prevailed just before a tiger lashed out at a three-year-old boy at the Montekristo ‘animal park’ last month.
The ugly incident happened in November at the estate which houses an illegal zoo, already spotlighted for keeping animals in poor conditions. The owners had been receiving warning letters sent by the government veterinary directorate from as far back as 2012.
In the wake of the tragedy, new legislation banning the import of dangerous wild animals is a welcome improvement from the days when it seemed ‘easier to import a tiger cub than a kitten’ into the Maltese islands.
Tigers are threatened with extinction in the wild, and international trade in tigers is recognised as one of the principal causes behind that threat.
Six years ago a Bengal tiger was found living in a Mosta garage, without documents. All the necessary certification was later produced for the authorities yet it is still a mystery how the tiger entered the country, apparently slipping past proper border checks which should have been in place for such animals.
Allowing private possession of big cats, which should typically be roaming vast distances in the wild, poses an unnecessary and preventable risk to public safety. Lions, tigers and other wild cats suffer immensely when confined to a cage, no matter how roomy their prison quarters.
Tigers are at least 10 times stronger than a man. When they come into contact with people, even playfully, the results are often tragic. Big cats grow fast and quickly become the hard-wired killers they were designed to be.
Even when born in captivity and raised by hand, these wild animals retain their predatory instincts. Stress and frustration runs high in caged carnivores that are prevented from stalking their prey in a natural setting.
No matter how tame or domesticated they may seem, animals revert strongly to their instincts whenever they are agitated, frightened, hungry or unwell
Accidents around the world involving captive animals have led to permanent injury or even death. Since 1990, more than 300 dangerous incidents involving big cats have occurred in the US alone.
Yet, only a small proportion of captive tigers in the US are held at facilities accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, an organisation that supports conservation projects in over 100 countries worldwide. The majority of tigers and other big cats are kept at ‘unaccredited breeding facilities, poorly run roadside zoos, travelling zoos, pseudo sanctuaries and private menageries where the greatest risk of fatal attacks or injuries are likely to occur’.
Big cats intended to be kept as domestic pets are frequently removed from their mothers within days of birth, which may deny them proper nutrition and the natural socialisation process required for normal development.
Cubs mature very quickly and become difficult to control because of their sheer strength and wild instincts. At this point they are often relegated to live the remainder of their lives caged in back yards, basements, garages and rooftops. The expense of keeping such an animal is phenomenal even if no one gets hurt and sues the owner for damages. A cuddly tiger cub that outgrows its welcome risks being abandoned or even killed.
It was the escape and unfortunate demise in 2012 of Skittles the snake that helped raise awareness about the issue of exotic pets in Malta. Skittles was a beautiful rainbow-coloured boa constrictor from the forests of Brazil until he met an untimely end on the roads of Msida. Not a dangerous pet, although hardly the sort of creature one would like to meet in the street, the unfortunate escapee was run over by a car.
Online forums for snake-keepers are vaguely reassuring about the smaller types of boa which can grow up to six feet. It is the larger boa constrictors such as the anaconda that are ‘big enough to take down a man’. Snake aficionados reassuringly claim that even large boas are not big enough to eat a man although who would want to volunteer and find out? Failure to include venomous snakes on Malta’s import ban list seems unwise.
Red pandas (a bear-cat known to the Himalayas and eastern China) and numbats (a termite-eating marsupial) seem to have been included arbitrarily in the import ban simply because of their endangered status. There are many more creatures in danger of extinction even if they are not so attractive as pets.
The red panda population is decreasing due to loss of tree habitat and poaching for their pelts. Numbat numbers are down because of heavy predation by foxes, raptors and feral cats, although local breeding programmes to restore populations to the wild in Australia have seen some success.
The small wood scorpion found naturally in Malta (Euscorpius sicanus) gives only a mild sting, and some local centipedes can be rather obnoxious.
With the exception of native species occurring in the Maltese natural habitat, all scorpions and poisonous centipedes are on the banned import list.
We do have a few types of biting spiders here too, although nothing much to worry about. Of concern is how and on what basis the new legislation will determine which ‘experts’ are allowed to keep venomous spiders and how escapes into the environment are to be prevented.
It follows that importation is to be banned for elephants, walruses, sea lions, rhinos and hippos – the latter thought to be the most dangerous mammal on the planet. Although vegetarian, hippos are very aggressive towards humans. With no apparent provocation they commonly attack people in boats or on dry land. This may be partly because of their poor eyesight.
An exotic animal collector in the US who was toying with the idea of buying a walrus online was given the following advice by cohorts:
“All you need is a giant pool you can keep at the correct temperature, hire a full-time caregiver and be prepared to spend buckets of cash on food. There are no legal ways for a private owner to obtain a walrus so you’d have to set up some sort of non-profit organisation and jump through a lot of hoops to convince the regulators that your backyard pool fulfils some sort of scientific or conservation need.”
The new regulations, which have yet to come into force, are intended to protect public safety, animal welfare and endemic species. So far there has been no sign that any sort of public consultation will be held over the draft legal notice.
Ironically, existing owners may find protection from competing imports in the new law unless it includes restrictions and penalties on commercial breeding and trading of exotic species by owners of animals already brought into Malta.