The Office of the Commissioner for Animal Welfare has proposed that cats should be microchipped by law for their owners to be found more quickly in case they are lost, hit by a car or stolen.

The recommendation is one of two made following an investigation into the death of Masha, a local Valletta cat that had become part of the community and that was put down by the Animal Welfare Department last week.

In its investigation, the Office of the Commissioner cleared the department of wrongdoing saying that all established regulations were followed.
Masha, had been fed and photographed by passers-by as she sat atop a utilities box in Melita Street, for 18 years.

The cat had been found by a policeman “partly-paralysed on a doorstep and in critical condition” after being hit by a car.

The report of the vet who recommended euthanasia on welfare grounds described her health as “very weak, emaciated and dehydrated” and noted that the cat was also suffering from paralysis and evidence of severe haemorrhagic diarrhoea.

Some 50 animal lovers gathered in Valletta yesterday to mourn the cat’s death.

In its report, the Office of the Commissioner also recommended that a record or register for lost animals should start to be kept, both for animals that were microchipped and also for those that were not.

The Commissioner’s report in full may be read in the pdf link below.