A call for tenders has been issued for the construction of an animal cemetery, Parliamentary Secretary Roderick Galdes told Parliament today.

Last July MEPA approved an application for a pet cemetery with a small incinerator in Ta’ Qali.

The plans, submitted by the animal rights parliamentary secretariat, will cover an area of about 1,900 square metres where people will be able to put an urn with their pets’ ashes in free-standing walls.

An incinerator and a burial preparation room will be built in the middle of the cemetery, surrounded by rows of burial walls having 11,000 compartments of about 30cm by 30cm.

Otherwise, people may choose to cremate their pet at the cemetery and take the remains home.

Mr Galdes said the refurbishment of Centru San Frangisk was moving ahead and structural issues were being addressed.

These works would lead to a new hospital for animals operating on a 24-hour basis, he said.