I could hardly believe what I read in the article titled ‘€2m European grant for wildlife centre’ (May 9).

Are we to understand that an effort will be made to save the Pharaoh hound or tal-kaċċa from extinction, especially when knowing that both breeds are short of pedigrees and without a breed standard similar to that of the English KC?

I know of one person trying to save the Pharaoh hound, however, I do not believe he could go any further than the F2 (second filial generation) without resorting to in-breeding, unless, of course, we do not care whether the offspring would grow into a true-to-type Pharaoh hound (a fine specimen) or not. Are we going to breed a Pharaoh hound that fits into the standard or are we creating a standard that fits into the breed?

The same applies to the tal-kaċċa breed. Calling the Pharaoh hound kelb tal-fenek or tal-kaċċa gundog is like saying Pepsi Cola and Coca Cola are the same.

Again, mammals born to live in the wild suffer extremely when deprived of their natural habitat, no matter how docile they appear. First of all, wild animals need to keep fit both to catch their prey and to escape from it.

They enjoy playing with each other and hearing one another calling for food or being pampered. They like swimming across the rivers. All caged birds/mammals were either captured or captive-bred at one time. None of them were born to be in a cage. When they are free they are never alone and when separated, they call wildly to their flock mates. They clean themselves and fly together, when eggs are laid they share egg incubation.

Such should be the life of wildlife and not keeping them in aviaries the rest of their lives.