Watch: ‘It’s A Joke’: MP Janice Chetcuti Condemns €50 Fines For Unregistered Cat Feeders
Janice Chetcuti, the Shadow Minister for Animal Rights, has come out strongly against a new law that imposes €50 fines on unregistered cat feeders.
Speaking to Lovin Malta, Chetcuti said that while she agrees with the register for cat feeders and a €350,000 cat food voucher scheme to help them out, she completely disagrees with the fines and said they’re a “joke”.
The legal notice stipulates that feeding stray cats in public areas is prohibited unless the feeder is registered with their respective local council. Feeders must provide detailed information about their colonies to the local council, including GPS coordinates of feeding areas, the number of cats in each colony, the number of neutered cats, and, if available, their microchip details.
Feeders are also responsible for ensuring that the cats in their colonies are healthy and free from disease. They must make every effort to have the cats neutered and must immediately inform the Director of Animal Welfare if they suspect a cat is sick or there is a disease outbreak.
Chetcuti questioned how elderly cat feeders will be able to send GPS coordinates of their feeding locations and asked what will happen to regular people who feed a solitary stray cat.
“Let’s say I’m a registered feeder for a Żejtun colony,” she said. “If I’m eating out in Mellieħa and a stray cat comes up to me, and I give him some of my chicken, I will get fined €50 because I’m not registered in this zone.”
The government has said that people who feed strays won’t get fined so long as they clean up after them. It said the register is necessary to ensure the money allocated through the food voucher scheme truly ends up in the hands of philanthropic cat feeders and that the fines are intended to clamp down on people who throw their leftovers onto the streets on the pretence that they’re feeding cats.
“The law is not only intended to safeguard the rights of animals but of residents too, so to preserve hygiene as a result of insects, hornets, rats etc that relocate to places where food is left outside. These endanger the health and safety of residents, as well as the cats themselves,” it said.
However, Chetcuti argued that the Littering Act already covers this sort of abuse and said the police and Animal Welfare should focus their energy into enforcing current laws against animal abusers.
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