Having been raised in a country where pets were largely seen as cherished members of the family, I would be lying if I said moving back to Malta hadn’t been a bit of a culture shock.

In the 1990s, the pervading culture was still that an animal was just that and not much more. Of course, there were a lot of people who loved their pets; however, I still remember seeing enormous Alsatians and Huskies on open roofs covered in their excrement at the high point of summer and exhausted-looking horses standing outside with the ferocious sun beating down on them.

Unfortunately, this lack of care is still reflected in the availability of services offered to animal lovers. Malta’s 24/7 animal hospital has been shut since August 2023 thanks to catastrophic damage resulting from a power surge, which means that if something happens to your pet at night, you must rely almost solely on whether your own vet or the emergency vet can or will give you the help you need. The small-animal emergency service set up by the Malta Veterinary Association simply doesn’t have the resources to keep up with local demand.

Just last year, a pledge to reopen the hospital and turn it into a space where MCAST students taking the new veterinary course could be trained also went unfulfilled. From what I can understand, the agriculture ministry is playing ‘Hot Potato’ with the education ministry, as it has been reported that the reopening of the hospital is now the sole responsibility of the education ministry.

So, if things go as they usually do, we’ll probably be drowning in red tape and petty bureaucracy for the next few years till this mess is resolved, while more animal lovers lose beloved parts of their lives to inefficiency. It’s honestly heartbreaking to think about, let alone experience.

A couple of weeks ago, a story made the rounds about a dog owner who spent the night trying to get health assistance for her pet, who had over 50 seizures and ended up dying as a result of him not getting the help needed. Apart from the fact the pet owner spent the night trying to find a vet who would carry out a home visit, she then also encountered a particular vet who was allegedly particularly insensitive to her case; the cherry on the cake was the sheer number of individuals commenting and confirming that they too had been through similar events.

It honestly beggars belief that things like this, among many others, are allowed to happen in a supposedly civilised country. Situations like these are deeply traumatic for pet owners who adore their companions. There is no excuse for letting citizens experience horrifying situations like this while ministries fight over who needs to shell out the cash to make things happen. This is what I pay taxes for, not to re-do the same road that’s been done twice over in the span of six months, purchase more plants for our roundabouts that are wholly incompatible with the Maltese climate, or give the minister’s pet multiple salaries on the public purse.

The system won’t stop letting us down and we keep letting it do so.