Sabine in Gozo

Shame on you, whoever you are!

I took this photo a couple of weeks ago, a cute and adorable little guy who was begging for morsels from diners, down in Marsalforn. I have a gut feeling that this little fellow was one of the poor creatures that died a painful and unnecessary death (see press release by the Gozo SPCA below).

If I had the time for keeping a dog, I might have taken him home and given him a bath and a cuddle. But sadly, a dog is about the last thing I can take care of right now.

I admit that having stray animals frequenting their establishments is not a desirable state of affairs for restaurant owners, and dining in the company of stray animals is not for everyone. But there are many ways to solve this problem without unnecessary cruelty.

There are no words strong enough to express the disgust I felt when reading this in my e-mail this afternoon. It’s making me sick to my stomach!

Press Release for the Gozo SPCA

15 July 2009

Just before 8am today, a member of the public reported to Gozo SPCA that there was a dog crying in a skip in Marsalforn. The Centre Manager, Betty Berry, immediately responded with the Gozo SPCA funded twenty four hour animal ambulance and requested the local Police to also be in attendance. On arrival with the Police, Betty Berry found a dog feed sack inside the skip in which there appeared to be a dog in severe pain. On removal from the skip, to their horror they discovered that the dog was on top of another dog inside the same sack. Examination of the second dog revealed it to be dead, but the death was recent since rigor mortis had not set in. The dog that was alive was in severe pain throwing its head back in agony, screaming and fitting. After covering its head to calm the dog, it was rushed to the Vet. The Vet diagnosed that the dog had been poisoned and was in the final throes of dying an agonising death, sadly the only option was to put it peacefully to sleep. Both dogs were small to medium in size, of terrier cross breed and looked to have been in quite good health prior to being poisoned.

Whilst making a report at the Victoria Police Station, Gozo SPCA was informed that an injured kitten had been handed in by a tourist, who had picked it up nearby; they thought it had been hit by a car. In fact it had a severe eye infection, which could result in the loss of one eye. Other than that the kitten, which is very tame, seems in good health and is eating well and is now under veterinary care at the Gozo SPCA shelter. This cruel abandonment may well have a very happy ending since the Police would like to have the kitten as a Station cat when it has fully recovered from its treatment.

Gozo SPCA personnel have been very shaken and deeply upset by these two cruel events following so closely on the dog found in a Cave last week. A spokesperson commented that from the recent vigorous discussions in the press there had been a lot of hurtful and ill informed criticism of the Gozo SPCA but the Society had also received many more messages of support. However they were very heartened to learn that there are a number of people in Gozo and Malta who are willing to re-home injured and sick dogs on a permanent basis. Gozo SPCA frequently pick up such dogs and would be very grateful if these people would leave their contact details either by calling the Centre on 21553769 or by email at info@spca-gozo.org and then something really positive will come from this very sad episode.

Gozo SPCA are vigorously pursuing the owner of the two dogs and urge the public to report any information that they may have either to the Society, or the Police, or the Animal Welfare Unit in Malta on 25905302.

Kudos to Betty and everyone else at the SPCA, who give a lot of their time, money and compassion to the four-legged inhabitants of Gozo! And I wish them luck in their pursuit of the sick person, who committed this despicable act!

Update… In the meantime, I’ve seen pictures on GozoNews, and it would appear that the above pictured dog was not a victim of this crime…