India Knight, a columnist of The Sunday Times of London, has written a very perceptive book, The Goodness of Dogs. It is not simply a guide to raising, feeding and training dogs, rather, its focus is on dog ownership and how, like any other rapport, the relationship between dogs and humans is a two-way street.

Perceptive is the operative word here because, since animals do not communicate verbally or in ways we can wholly understand, our comprehension of the animal world is based on intuition and observation.

Yet, we remain ignorant about animals. We either engage in Disney-like anthropomorphisation or else we assume that, since they cannot express their pain in a verbal manner, they don’t feel it.

Worse, we assume that, no matter what, animals will always reward us with undying love. Such ignorance fuels cruelty towards animals. Two shocking episodes made it to the news recently.

A dog died of its injuries after being rescued from a rock at the bottom of a cliff near Għar Ħasan. How two spearfishermen battled the rough seas to rescue the dog strengthens the belief in human kindness; the possibility that the pup did not fall but was thrown off the cliffs sharpens the shard of human cruelty.

A decapitated pony was found near the old Marsa track. The gruesome manner in which the animal was killed is shocking; so is the way the animal had possibly been neglected for months. The head was apparently removed because the electronic chip inserted in the neck could give the owner away.

These are by no means isolated incidents. In 2011, a dog was shot in the head and buried alive near Għar Ħasan. More than 40 lead pellets and pieces of plastic were removed from its skull. Photos of the dog - later called ‘Star’ – desperately fighting for air while buried neck-deep in soil shocked the nation and inspired a public demonstration against animal cruelty. Sadly, Star succumbed to its injuries.

In 2013, a four-year-old boxer was put in a black garbage bag and dumped in a skip, where it remained for 12 hours before being spotted by a jogger.

What is most terrible about animal cruelty is the amount of effort and thought invested in inflicting pain. Cliff, an Alaskan husky, was found abandoned down a Żurrieq cliff face with a rope tied around its neck and a cat’s four legs were cut off in Mosta while the animal was still alive.

Such cruelty is not limited to Malta. Last year, the RSPCA in the UK warned that cruelty to animals is becoming disturbingly inventive: the animal welfare charity mentioned cases where a dog was shot in the head with a 20-inch crossbow bolt, a cat was run over and then kicked like a football by a passerby and a rabbit died in agony after being microwaved.

People who commit such cruelty on animals must also be capable of inflicting pain on fellow humans.

In the wake of the increasing incidence of animal cruelty, harsher legislation was enacted: anyone found guilty of animal cruelty can now be fined between €233 and €46,500 or jailed for a maximum of one year. A Commissioner for Animal Welfare was also appointed, with the responsibility to enforce the Animal Welfare Act.

Yet, harsher penalties are only a punishment for an act that has already been committed. What is needed is greater understanding that, even if they do not communicate in ways we understand, animals can still feel pain.

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