At least four small to mid-sized dogs are currently abandoned in a field on the outskirts of Gudja after their elderly owner suddenly stopped coming to tend to them – with many fearing the owner to have died.

Now, the dogs – which are tame but frightened – have become covered in fleas and ticks, and rely on food given to them by another family who has taken on sporadically feeding them ever since their original owner stopped appearing.

The dogs currently live in a field in the Ta’ Loretu area of Gudja, a field featuring no structures save for a rundown, abandoned car they crawl under for shade.

The dogs, believed to be mixed Fox Terrier type dogs, are at risk of becoming infected from the pests infesting them, and are at risk of going feral, becoming strays in the street or even dying from possible infections, lack of food and worst off lack of water in this scorching heat.

However, after a member of the public reported the dogs to the Animal Welfare Directorate, he was informed that not only would the dogs not be tended to by AW officers as they are not microchipped, but that the order allegedly came from the AW Director herself.

However, it doesn’t end there – over the last week and since the initial inspection by Animal Welfare, a bushfire erupted in the field the dogs currently live in. Though the dogs somehow survived, the field they live in is in an even more dire state than before.

Though the dogs are abandoned, in need of medical care and eventually rehoming, Animal Welfare is refusing to take them in and delouse them since they are not microchipped.