Malta’s Animal Welfare Ministry Under Fire For ‘Damning Report’ Released Months After Writing
Denis Montebello, the Commissioner for Animal Welfare in Malta, was appointed in October last year. After six months in the position, he drafted up a report of his findings on the current state of animal welfare in Malta… but the document was only published within the last week or so.
Animal rights activists have welcomed the report except for the time it took for it to be released, but with Montebello on their side who really is to blame?
The ministry allegedly delayed the release of the document, for reasons unknown, which raises the question: had this been released at the time of writing would things have been different for cases like that of Persy the dog? While the report does not lay out a course of action proposed to amend the faults found within, it does raise many points worth discussing.
Minister José Herrera specifically asked Montebello to analyse the Animal Welfare situation because he had suspected things weren’t exactly running smoothly.
For one, it brings to attention the staffing situation of the Animal Welfare department, who are under continuous stress to meet the demands of stray and abandoned animals in Malta.
This all sounds fine at a first look, but Montebello wasn’t going to simply observe; he was going to scrape the skin off the custard and dip his spoon in.
Continuing further into the report, he writes: “This competent organisation seemed to guarantee a fully efficient service,” contrary to what you’d assume when reading statements on social media, “in ordinary circumstances but then the details of what actually happens in practice turned out to be most unsettling to say the least.”
What was so unsettling that Montebello had discovered?
And it doesn’t end there, because as the commissioner has come to find, those assigned official duties within the Animal Welfare Directorate are chosen from within the public service but there is no reference made to their physical capabilities; whether or not they have any impediments that could affect their work, phobias of animals, etc.
It’s an interesting point to raise, as the report claims that the staff are affected by such afflictions (at least five at the time of writing) which leaves the shifts unable to be covered adequately.
The staff affected by such things are not considered for active duty, but are still employed within the capacity to be expected to perform their duties.
Each shift is thus reduced to an amount of around five officers at a time, which results in the staff cover not being enough to effectively carry out the duties of the directorate.
Response vehicles must be manned by two officers at a time and with only two vehicles at their helm (and at this point rightly so), it leaves only one officer left to man the switchboard for the entirety of their 12-hour shift. This is where the complaints of unanswered calls and lengthy wait times for callouts stems from – the department simply cannot cope with the current workforce.
The report also brings to light the training and instruction given to officers when undertaking the role.
There is a limited amount of instruction given as to how to handle stray, abandoned and scared animals and the same goes for the aftercare, in which case most of the time animals are sent to volunteer facilities or treated by vets and released back when healthy.
Customer care and phone etiquette aren’t taught within the field of their department, either, and thus anyone who calls for an update on a reported case is often left without answers.
Montebello even goes as far as admitting that he’s “not even aware of any instruction being given to these officers on the rights guaranteed by law to all animals and on the freedoms to which all animals are entitled.”
In fact, Montebello continues to confess that he isn’t even aware of any instruction of animal rights being given to staff of the AWPSD.
But the condemnation of the workers is only the tip of the iceberg, as Montebello explains his findings of the Għammieri site as “archaic” and wonders if he will ever be able to fix the place up during his term in the position.
“No amount of patchwork refurbishing or cleaning sprees (though they may improve the deficient conditions) will ever get this archaic facility up to the minimum standards required,” he explains, calling for what should have resulted in the prosecution of whoever was in charge had the facility been privatised.
Montebello draws the report towards a close by saying that “if we are not very alert in stemming this tide of disregard to animal welfare, we might end up having to accept the reality of what one contributor on social media stated in jest that ‘what is a worse fate for any animal suffering an inhumane and cruel treatment is to be rescued by the Animal Welfare Directorate’.”
And in his final passages, he doesn’t exactly lay out a plan. What he does do, instead, is expose every hole in the plot of animal welfare in Malta.
As one of the damaging factors that Montebello suspects is at play here is the fact that AWD don’t have any legal departments with trained personnel acting in the position of documenting and drafting notices of procedures, admissions or offences.
As well, there is no set up for the drafting of complaints filed leaving the police with no grounds to open a case, nor does AWD have a procedure in place to assist the police with prosecution of the case, to put forward the evidence and witnesses, to make submissions and, in general, to do all that is necessary for the case to be prosecuted in a diligent and efficient manner.