Group urges Malta to promote animal welfare during EU presidency

Regulating the exotic pet trade, clamping down on the illegal trade in puppies, and phasing out cruel piglet mutilation are among a number of animal welfare policies included in a memorandum for the Maltese government to consider promoting during its six-month presidency of the Council of the European Union starting between January and June 2017.

The memorandum was drawn up Eurogroup for Animals, the leading pan-European animal advocacy organisation, and was presented during a public debate with the theme, Rights of the Voiceless, organised on Friday by MEP Marlene Mizzi to discuss the standards of animal welfare and the well-being of animals in Malta and the European Union.

Eurogroup for Animals president Reineke Hameleers said Malta was the first country she had visited that actually had a parliamentary secretary for animal rights.

“This is very promising of what the Maltese EU presidency could deliver,” she said. “The Maltese are among the EU citizens most vocal in their desire to see the Union’s institutions act to better protect animals.”

Hameleers said that the Lisbon Treaty has established that animals were sentient beings but the EU had so far failed to implement any legislation for the protection of animals.

Other important policies that the Maltese should consider introducing include a widespread ban on the use of animals in circuses, ending long-distance transportation of farm animals, promoting responsible equine care and ensuring a sound governance structure for the EU Animal Welfare Platform, which will launched in the beginning of 2017, she said.

Mizzi, who serves as vice-president of the Animal Welfare Intergroup of the European Parliament, said that all animals, be they wild, farm or domestic, deserved to be treated with respect and dignity.

“Animals have no vote and no voice to protest, and it falls to us to promote and protect their health and habitat,” she said.

Parliamentary secretary for animal rights Roderick Galdes said that it was the moral duty of each and every one to protect animals and to act swiftly in cases of animal cruelty.

Malta, he said, was doing a lot in the field of animal welfare, by raising fines for animal cruelty, banning animal circuses, establishing a veterinary hospital and introducing legislation on the importation and upkeep of dangerous animals.

He called on the EU to better inform its citizens of animal welfare policies and legilsation, especially since the latest Eurobarometer poll had shown that nine out of 10 EU citizens considered animal welfare to be of great importance.

Other speakers at the conference, held at the Corinthia Palace Hotel & Spa in Attard, included Emanuel Buhagiar, commissioner for animal welfare in Malta, Barbara Cassar Torreggiani, president of SPCA Malta, and activist Moira Delia.

Vytenis Andriukaitis, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, recorded a video message which was played at the start of the conference.