Animal owners have been promised a pet cemetery for several years now but these plans had to be put on hold for the simple reason that no business was interested in setting it up.

Parliamentary secretary for animal rights Clint Camilleri made this frank admission during this week’s episode of Stat ta’ Fatt on ONE TV and confirmed the government will now step in to make good on a promise in the Labour Party’s electoral manifesto.

However, he said that his plan is for the cemetery to form part of a complex, which would also include a national rehoming centre for abandoned animals.

“We need a rehoming centre where abandoned animals collected by Animal Welfare can be cared for and where the public can view them and adopt them,” he said. “I believe this could be combined with our electoral promise for a pet cemetery. We had a problem in this regard because we issued a tender twice but we only received one offer, which was later retracted.”

“There isn’t much interest from the private sector to develop this cemetery but it could be that the government enters into a partnership with NGOs interested in managing it in the context of a rehoming centre.”

Camilleri said the government is currently searching for an adequate plot of land and will soon submit a planning application.

Back in 2016, the Planning Authority approved a government application for the development of a pet cemetery with a small incinerator and 11,000 pigeon-holes for urns in Ta’ Qali.

Does Malta need a pet cemetery?

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