Generosity towards fellow creatures

Christmas is here and, as usual, the majority of Maltese will be contributing generously to a number of charitable causes. Unfortunately, most people draw the line at contributing even a minimal sum to societies concerned with animal rights and animal welfare. Awareness of the suffering which stray dogs and cats are subjected to has barely scratched the surface of the conscience of Maltese society. People somehow fail to realise we are morally bound not only to avoid harming all sentient beings but also to contribute towards their welfare.

And so the destiny of these helpless creatures is left in the hands of a small number of selfless, hardworking individuals who give of their time and money in an effort to improve the quality of life of stray animals. These people are true heroes - they work, mostly in silence and with no reward for their efforts. They deserve all the help they can get in their thankless task and Christmas is as good a time as any for the rest of the community to show some support.

My appeal is for all compassionate persons to contribute a small sum to animal welfare NGOs this Christmas. In no way should this invitation be seen as an attempt to deviate money away from other charities. I would be happy if just a tiny fraction of the hundreds of thousands of liri collected over the Christmas period is used to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures.

I would like to end with two quotations which I obtained from the website of Catholic Concern for Animals, a UK Catholic society concerned with animal welfare and theology (http://www.catholic-animals.org):

"All creatures are created from the same paternal heartbeat of God. Not to hurt our humble brethren is our first duty to them but to stop here is a complete misapprehension of the intentions of providence. We have a higher mission. God wishes that we should help them when they require it" (St Francis of Assisi).

"They (the animals) have very positive rights because they are God's creatures. If we have to speak with absolute accuracy we must say that God has the right to have all His creatures treated with proper respect. Nobody should therefore carelessly repeat the old saying that animals have no rights. This could easily lead to wanton cruelty. The difficulty is that many people do not realise the extent to which cruelty to animals is practised as a matter of business. The best and most experienced teachers talk of kindness to animals. Christians have a duty not only to refrain from doing harm but also to do positive good" (John, Cardinal Heenan 1905-1975).