Contradictory Procedures, Lack Of Space And Monitoring Confusion Led To ‘Spiralling’ Situation For Abandoned Gudja Dogs
A series of unclear procedures, miscommunications and a lack of space and resources for abandoned animals led to an unnecessary escalation of the situation, a new report by the Animal Commissioner has found.
The case, involving four dogs in a seemingly abandoned Gudja field that subsequently caught on fire, was first revealed by Lovin Malta.
Since then, the four dogs have been rescued by the MSPCA and are being rehabilitated. But an analysis of the find and rescue by the Office of the Animal Commissioner has pinpointed weaknesses in the state’s response to animals in distress, and issued a number of recommendations to better address the situation in future.
“Various actions, non-actions and circumstances led to the unnecessary spiralling of this situation. However, the main issues of concern which need to be addressed immediately are the following,” the office said in its report.
“Contradictory and unclear procedures that govern how unchipped dogs that are found roaming are dealt with by Animal Welfare. Lack of standardised and recorded means of communication. Lack of an agreed and established understanding and definition of what exactly constitutes ‘monitoring’ a situation. Lack of space for housing abandoned animals.”
The story involves four dogs that were left alone after their elderly owner suddenly stopped tending to them. They were quickly infested with fleas, with fears that they would become ill or feral. Following Lovin Malta’s initial report, police were able to identify the owner of the field – however, after attempting to find him, he was confirmed as missing and not deceased, and the Malta Police Force have since issued a missing person call for him. He remains unfound.
One local had contacted the Animal Welfare Directorate to tend to them, however, AW refused to because they were not microchipped, leading to volunteers from the MSPCA to step in to rescue them.
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The analysis found that different Standard Operating Procedures caused conflicting approaches to the case.
According to AW SOP governing Animal Ambulance Duties at Animal Welfare Directorate – SOP/AWPS/OP/003/01/2020) 5.2(ii): “All dogs shall be collected except feral dogs in rural areas. In cases where a decision to leave the animal on place is taken, it is to be ascertained that the animal is in its natural habitat and is neither subject to any clearly potential danger nor posing a danger to itself to other animals or humans prior to being left on site.”
However, according to the Animal Rights Ministry’s website: “….due to the large number of animals under the Directorate’s care and custody, it is only animals which are not microchipped and are sick and injured that are picked up by the Animal Ambulance. In all other cases, the caller is advised to seek alternative shelter for the animal in a sanctuary….”
Aside from this, orders by AW Director to monitor the situation were not followed up on, and there were contradictory approaches as far as planning to trap the dogs went within AW.
Despite the contradictory SOPs and approaches to monitoring, the Animal Commissioner’s Office said that lack of space to home these dogs remains the biggest challenge for rescuers and the AW.
“It is amply clear that if space was not an issue, any dog, microchipped or not, injured or not, roaming outside, would be picked up by AW for their own safety. This was in fact the spirit in which the email sent by the Director on 12th July, 2022 was written in. However, when faced with such a dire situation of space AW is forced to prioritise which dogs to pick up and which not to pick up.”
“Procedures are unclear, contradictory, and not direct, because they change according to the space situation at AW.”
“Lack of space also affects the ‘type’ of dogs that are picked up. Eg. Easy to home dogs (small breeds) are taken in because they are more vulnerable but also because they do not occupy pen space for too long. This confuses the public that sees AW as inconsistent in their operations.”
It is no secret that lack of space is one of the biggest – if not the biggest – issues plaguing the animal sector locally. Sanctuaries have warned of an incoming storm that they are about to face as volunteers regularly open up about the personal financial and time price they must pay to attempt to halt the flow of stray-related issues on the island.
Watch the MSPCA’s rescue below
The commissioner issued ten recommendations following this incident:
1. Revise SOPs and instructions to have one clear operating procedure that governs such cases;
2. Utilise one single recordable and digital means of immediate and effective communication to handle all cases. The system should be kept updated at all times for anyone with authorisation to be able to check on a particular case;
3. Set clear time limits for logging reports, conducting inspections, updating internal reports after inspections and updating callers/reporters. The system should automatically red flag when dates are approaching or missed;
4. Eliminate verbal communication as much as possible. If not possible, any verbal communication should be followed up by a recorded means of communication (eg. Email). Any verbal instructions or actions on any case should be inserted in the system;
5. All calls from the public should be recorded including the ones that reach the animal ambulance directly;
6. Create an SOP that clearly defines and explains what is meant by ‘monitoring a case’, who is responsible and what basic steps are to be taken in each case;
7. Accelerate the expansion of new pens at Animal Welfare, to alleviate the situation of space as soon as possible. In the meantime, invest in more third party kennels and monetarily incentivise people to foster;
8. Accelerate the hiring of more adequate staff (inspectors) to avoid delaying inspections due to lack of staff;
9. Accelerate the introduction (and enforcement) of new breeding laws and enhance enforcement to reduce the number of abandoned dogs on the street. This includes farm dogs and feral dogs with owners;
10. Strongly enforce microchipping and apply administrative fines. Advertise this enforcement to create a deterrent.
You can read the full report by following this link
What do you think needs to be done to better the animal sector in Malta?