Multiple promises to improve animal welfare standards have been left to languish, the Nationalist Party noted on Saturday.

PN animal welfare spokesperson Janice Chetcuti noted that an animal hospital in Ta’ Qali has been closed since last August, that a pledge to create a re-homing centre for stray animals remained unfulfilled and that a government promise to set up an animal cemetery never materialised.

“It’s becoming clearer and clearer that the sector is crying out for more investment,” Chetcuti said in a statement on Saturday.

The PN MP was reacting to news that the animal commissioner is investigating how animal welfare officers handled a dog that had been shot.

In video posted to social media, the dog was seen with a rope tied around its neck and with the hoop of a catch pole around its stomach, as two officers carried it into an animal ambulance.

Chetcuti said animal carers and handlers at the animal welfare department require continuous training about how to handle animals and said they are sometimes not given the equipment they need to do their job properly and humanely.