The news last week that a puma and a black panther were found living in a home in Għajnsielem – soon after a dog was attacked – shocked many people, but Animal Commissioner Alison Bezzina says it is not possible to know how many big cats are actually in the country.

“When the law changed it became legal to import exotic creatures but despite regulations, the enforcement is weak. People started bringing in and breeding these dangerous animals without the authorities knowing about them,” she said.

“You can’t just knock on somebody’s door and ask to be let in and no magistrate is going to sign a warrant to search a house without just cause,” Bezzina said.

The other issue with enforcement is the lack of resources, she points out. 

In the Għajnsielem case, the panther and puma have officially been sequestered but they are still being kept in the same home as there is no appropriate place to keep them.

This also creates issues when trying to enforce the law on compliant big-cat owners.

'There is simply not enough space'

“The law specifies that big cats should be kept in enclosures of an adequate environment that allows them to express their instinct,” Bezzina said.

“How on earth can you replicate this in a home? A panther can run up to 80 miles an hour. Even if you have all the best intentions and money in the world, there is simply not enough space.

“You simply cannot provide a wild animal with anything close to its natural habitat, especially in a private residence.

“This is technically already against the law, but if we had to really enforce it we would find that everyone is in breach of this point.”

'Authorities dragging their feet'

Authorities, she added, were also dragging their feet on cases of non-compliance. 

“If they find lions and tigers where they should not be, they have nowhere to put them. So, while the law is there, the fact that there are no adequate facilities to confiscate animals or the resources to send them abroad to the appropriate sanctuaries makes the authority toothless.”

Keeping big cats privately is, strictly speaking, not permissible because the law dictates that ‘dangerous animals’ must be kept in an appropriately licensed zoo. However, when that law was implemented in 2016 a number of big cats were already being kept on the island.

Private owners were given the opportunity to register their animals in order to continue keeping them legally. 

According to a report drawn up by Four Paws International, an animal welfare group that reviewed big cats in Malta in 2019, six people had applied for permission to keep big cats, with a stock of at least nine lions, four leopards, one tiger and 17 pumas among them.

Unregulated breeding

The 2016 law also allowed private owners to breed their animals and sell them to zoos for a fee. The Four Paws report also highlighted unregulated breeding as an issue, with concerns that cubs would ultimately end up on the black market.

“Allowing private keepers to breed their animals will not lead to an end of privately kept dangerous animals, which is clearly the objective of the 2016 legislation,” the report said.

“Instead it will lead to a surplus of animals that will end up in unsuitable places or must be killed.

“There is no sanctuary space for big cats in Malta, which means that when a zoo or a private owner can no longer take care of their animals, there is no place to bring them to.”

Among its recommendations, Four Paws International told the authorities they should make efforts to strictly monitor the births and deaths of big cats in the country, enforce a neutering program and take steps to de-incentivise the private trade of wild animals.