Dealing with strays

I am a regular visitor to your island and am an animal lover. I was in Malta recently and saw some articles in The Times about the welfare of animals on the island. It seems to me that the newspaper is being used as a battlefield on the strays issue. Some lines really got me annoyed, such as that "there also was a problem with the tourists" as they tend to feed the cats during their stay and then leave the problem of feeding the animals when they are gone.

It seems such a strange way of looking at the issue. Obviously, with quarantine, tourists cannot be accused of bringing animals with them. It is only because they are animal lovers and can't stand to see a living soul starving that they spend some of their holiday money on buying cat biscuits and milk instead of spending it on other items.

It is the same purest intentions and good hearts that make some Maltese and, believe me I have seen a few, spend most of their income on feeding animals because they cannot bear to see them starve to death.

On the other hand, some people are annoyed because the strays are a noisy, smelly, dirty lot and they see them as too numerous. So, they put the blame on the feeders as if they were the ones responsible for the situation because they don't neuter the animals. If those who are annoyed were to take a closer look at the lives of the feeders they would probably see that they can't find money to sterilise animals as they can hardly find enough cash to feed them.

Still, there is a meeting point: Everyone agrees that something has to be done and instead of fighting one another people should join to try and find a solution to the problem.

From my point of view, I cannot see what the government, which is the one to turn to when there is such a problem, is doing. At least, it could spare a little money to some of the associations, such as SOS Animals Malta, or the SPCA, or find a plot of land for Noah's Ark's sanctuary and many more.

It could also probably reinforce the law concerning the increasing number of abandoned animals. In Switzerland, I have read that the number of abandoned animals dropped when it was decided to tattoo or register animals being bought or adopted. The owners have then to pay a small tax each year. The animals are all registered and directly taken back to the owner's when "lost".

The various efficient associations working in Malta for animal welfare know what they have to do to make life better for the animals, for the animal lovers and for those who cannot stand the first two categories. It is money that is missing. So, when is the government going to fork out a little locally and grant a regular funding to the animal associations so they can work on a good basis with a long-term aim and not try to help animals with scraps on a day-to-day basis?

I am a tourist and I fed the cats during my last stay in November as I had done previously and hope will continue to do when there again. I also have to confess the crime of having given money to some of the Maltese feeders and having enriched your local economy by buying cat biscuits rather than drinking at the pub. Should I be blamed for that?

When I read the suggestion that leaflets should be distributed in hotels in order to warn tourists to stop feeding the strays, I must admit it made me laugh, and cry. No leaflet is going to teach me what my heart has to feel; no leaflet is going to make me turn a blind eye to a starving animal! And you are going to find the same behaviour in all the tourists who appreciate animals.