The sale and purchase of any animals, particularly puppies and kittens, should be taxed and monitored more stringently to bring the exploding pet population under control, the Animal Welfare Commissioner has said.
The authorities should seriously consider taxing the sale of pets as luxury commodities to further incentivise animal adoption, as shelters continue to fill up with little room for new additions and cat colonies growing beyond the control and budgets of small-time local feeders, Alison Bezzina has warned in an opinion piece.
If the situation does not change soon, Malta would have to face the possibility of introducing kill shelters.
“In large cities all over the world, communities end up running out of resources and land to house abandoned pets and end up, unfortunately, having to introduce kill shelters. In little Malta and Gozo, sanctuaries are splitting at the seams and feeders cannot keep up as feral cat populations continue to explode. Everything is indicating we are heading in that direction,” she said.
A kill shelter is an animal shelter that accepts all animals without restrictions but is very likely to euthanise animals based on the duration of their stay if they are not adopted. The idea is to keep enclosures free to continue accepting animals in lieu of these being dumped in public places.
Authorities should seriously consider taxing the sale of pets
“To make it absolutely clear, I’m in no way advocating for kill shelters, but we have to open our eyes to the reality that we are heading down that path,” Bezzina pointed out.
“The best way to avoid it is to place enormous focus on a neutering campaign, particularly for cats, and regulate breeders who churn out puppies with little oversight.
“I understand the desire to want to pick a certain type of dog, but you are highly unlikely not to be able to find your perfect match, with our shelters full to the brim at the moment. There’s also a trend we see in bigger dogs getting abandoned or surrendered to shelters. Controlling an animal is not about their size, but about their temperament, and often, larger dogs are much calmer and obedient than small dogs.”
Thanks to lax laws on breeding, any person intending to breed not more than four litters a year does not need a licence and receives little to no oversight in their animal breeding activities, Bezzina said.
“There are actually only two licensed breeders on the island, yet if you scroll online there is no shortage of puppies and kittens for sale at exorbitant prices,” she added.
“The cheapest kind of pure bred is in the €400/€500 range. One litter can produce up to five or six puppies. At the very least that’s 20 puppies a year. Let’s say then you’ve bent the rules a little and say excess litters belong to your spouse or child over 18. A household of three could conceivably be having up to 60 puppies a year.”
No new laws should have to be introduced, Bezzina argues, but simply a matter of applying existing ones to breeders.
“Like anything you sell, if VAT income applies, tax should be declared,” she said.
“If you were to start importing a new product to Malta and sell it to people, we wouldn’t need a new law for that, we would just tax it as normal.”
Making breeders declare their taxable income would also allow authorities to keep tabs on breeders and have more efficient ways to monitor that laws are being followed and animals are not being exploited.
“Animal welfare is already at a breaking point. We need more ways to incentivise people to adopt and not shop. But we need to take these steps now before the situation gets any worse.”