An animal rights’ lobby group has called for pet owners to be prosecuted if they leave an animal alone in an undesirable environment for long periods.

Animal Guardians Malta, previously called Street Cat Rescue, said that the law currently allowed people to keep a dog chained in an abandoned building so long as the animal was fed and had shelter.

“So long as the owner goes there and throws food at the poor dog – who could be chained there for years – and so long as there is some form of shelter – even if it’s a slab – then the law is not being broken. This is absurd,” a spokeswoman for the NGO said.

The organisation is circulating a petition calling for amendments to animal welfare laws to plug a legal loophole that allows for abuse to be tolerated, she said.

In the petition, that can be seen on the Change.org website, the NGO says the law should reflect the five freedoms of animal welfare as established in the UK in 1965. These included freedom from hunger and thirst, freedom from discomfort, pain, injury or disease, freedom to express normal behaviour and freedom from fear and distress.

When contacted, Animal Welfare Commissioner Manuel Buhagiar said these freedoms had been incorporated in the Animal Welfare Act through amendments introduced in November last year.

So long as there is some form of shelter – even if it’s a slab – then the law is not being broken

A newly introduced section to the law clearly stated that owners had to take steps to ensure that the needs of an animal under their care were met.

It went on to add that the animals’ needs included “the provision of suitable environment, provision of a healthy diet, allowance for the animal to exhibit normal behavioural patterns, provision of suitable housing, segregation from other animals where necessary and protection from pain, suffering, injury and disease.” Mr Buhagiar said the law also safeguarded animals from neglect and, the November amendments had upped the punishments to range between €1,000 and €80,000 – depending on whether this was a first-time offence.

He added that law makers had to maintain a balance and take care not to enact laws that did not work in practice. He believed that the current law protected animals from neglect and abuse.

In the online petition, the NGO also called for the introduction of animal forensics to ensure that prosecutors did all they could to bring a perpetrator to justice. The NGO also said measures should be put in place to ensure that animal welfare officers recruited to work with animals really cared about them.

Mr Buhagiar said that newly recruited officers were screened, tested for suitability and provided with training.