Animal organisations are not shocked that a quarter of almost 2,000 injured strays taken for treatment are put down.

We are the animal welfare and not the pest control department and would never dream of putting down an animal because there are too many around

The problem, they stressed, stemmed from the fact that people were dumping animals and from lack of enforcement of laws such as those providing for micro chipping and neutering.

The Sunday Times reported that in the first nine months of the year 535 of the 1,977 injured strays picked up on the streets by the animal ambulance and taken to the San Franġisk animal hospital in Ta’ Qali were euthanised by vets.

They were suffering from incurable conditions or would not be able to lead a normal, dignified life, the Animal Welfare Directorate said.

“I’m not surprised with the figure because animals that are run over often have horrific injuries,” said Mark Vella Bardon, from Noah’s Ark.

Myriam Kirmond, from Animal Rights’ Group, and Barbara Cassar Torregiani, from SPCA, said it was difficult to judge the San Franġisk animal hospital over the number of stays euthanised.

One would have to see the state of the animal’s health at the time and keep in mind that such animals were taken to the hospital because they were injured and were not healthy pets, they added.

Ms Cassar Torregiani said that when SPCA received government funding for one week to take in and treat strays it too was criticised for putting down animals.

SPCA, and now San Franġisk, ended up doing the dirty work for those who abandoned their animals onto dangerous roads.

“The solution to controlling the stray population will never be just putting down strays,” she said. “It needs to be in conjunction with neutering, micro chipping and enforcement of new animal welfare laws.”

Ms Kirmond agreed that one of the key elements to tackling stray populations was taking action against their abandonment.

Dr Vella Bardon said the question was what happened to animals that survived their injuries?

Janice Chetcuti, from the Animal Welfare Directorate, explained that when a stray left San Franġisk it was taken to the government farm in Għammieri, which currently housed about 200 cats and dogs. While some animals died a natural death there, the majority were homed by the directorate. In fact, about 100 animals a month were homed with the help of the media and through Facebook.

She shared a concern raised by NGOs that, on reading that 500 animals were put down in a year, people might think twice before calling the ambulance for fear that the cat or dog they found would be destroyed anyway.

“If an animal is badly injured, it’s very nasty to leave it on the road... It’s kinder to put it down,” Ms Kirmond said.

Ms Chetcuti stressed that animals were only put down when they had no hope for a decent life or were in pain. “We do not go and take people’s pets and put them down,” she said.

“We are an animal welfare organisation and not the pest control department. We would never dream of putting down an animal because there are too many around. To us, that would not be putting them to sleep but killing them.”

She said that, while the figure of 500 animals being put down sounded big, one had to keep in mind that the remaining 1,500 had been saved. She assured the public that the directorate did all it could to save animals and gave an example of a dog, a rottweiler, that had to have part of its paws amputated due to gangrene and was now living a normal life.