Cat Feeders Left Starving For Funds After New €5,000 Voucher Scheme Runs Out Within Hours
Maltese people who spend their time volunteering and helping stray animals across the island are raising the alarm after a new scheme aimed at supporting them ran dry within hours.
Just this week, the Ministry for Agriculture, Fisheries and Animal Rights announced that it would be issuing vouchers for the neutering of stray cats yesterday, urging stray feeders to contact them over the next three weeks to book the vouchers.
However, feeders who get in contact are being told: “sorry, vouchers have finished.”
One prominent animal activist and feeder told Lovin Malta that though the €5,000 scheme may be a good start, it was barely a drop in the ocean of funds needed to address Malta’s serious stray problem – and the fact that the money was burnt through within a day of it launching just goes to show how serious the problem is.
“The €5,000 the minister gave us yesterday has ended,” Maxine Borg said publicly. “So what will I do now?”
Referring to Animal Rights Parliamentary Secretary Alicia Bugeja Said, Maxine wondered who was going to fund the feeding and spaying of a number of kittens and mother cats.
Another feeder broke down the process she experienced when getting into contact with authorities to obtain some vouchers to cover animal food costs.
She was informed that she would be given five vouchers per feeder, and needed to visit a particular clinic in Msida to obtain them.
A third feeder shared a video of a swathe of documents showing the sheer number of strays she’s individually taken in, registered for spaying and handled in just one year.
Moira Delia, a prominent TV presenter and animal rights activist, said that the five vouchers per feeder scheme left her feeling like she didn’t know whether she should “laugh or cry”.
A spokesperson for the Ministry for Agriculture, Fisheries, Food and Animal Rights told Lovin Malta that a tender to neuter stray cats “was issued to the value of around €300,000 over three years. In the interim, vouchers are being made available for registered feeders.”
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