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On several occasions, I have visited your beautiful island and I am extremely worried because it seems to be that the government has given a contract to a consortium to look after public gardens around Malta and Gozo. On a recent occasion I was not allowed to feed the cats as this consortium is planning to remove all the cats and I don’t understand why.
I am a regular visitor to your island and I deeply enjoy the gardens in Malta because of the cats’ presence. They are looked after by associations or private people and they do attract a lot of tourists. I have seen many of them photographing the cats. Two years ago on the 8 September, whilst in the Barrakka Gardens in Valletta, I saw a group of tourists rescuing a cat that had fell into a fountain. One man spent an hour with the animal, just to make sure it was all right. This man was a British tourist and the man that went to get the cat from inside the fountain was a young German. All this took place while the Maltese public was busy watching the regatta in Grand harbour.
Efforts to contact local vets proved all futile on this ‘important date’ in the Maltese calendar. I was later informed that the cat died. This makes me stress the point that you should now try to set up a 24 hour animal clinic or an animal hospital as in most European Countries.
Part of the pleasure of coming to your island is that - until my very recent visit - animals living freely were tolerated and allowed. They are doing no harm at all. Instead of trying to get rid of the cats from public gardens, it would be much wiser to give some money for the cat to be neutered to keep the population down.
Cats in Malta are part of the image of the island; if you look in the shops, you are going to find a lot of postcards and calendars advertising ‘Malta’s cats’. Obviously, I am not the only one who loves animals because the postcards and calendars must have a market or they would not be printed. Some cities are famous for their cats, like the Greek islands, Cairo, Rome and Tunis. Instead of removing the cats, your tourism office board could get in contact with the great cat photographer Hans Silverster, who prints books about them using his own pictures. He has already worked a lot in the Greek inlands and could be very interested to come to your island.
I am very sorry to inform you that you could lose a lot of tourists if you carry on like this. I also feel it is my duty to inform the French associations (Brigitte Bardot, SPA, Le Chat... ) as well as cat magazines and other animal welfare organisations around the world about what is happening to cats in Malta.
Anne Rolland
France
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