A dog’s dinner

From circus animals to the shocking investigations into the government slaughterhouse, the darkest side of animal cruelty has resurfaced in the last weeks. Actress, presenter and director of World Animal Conscience, Marica Mizzi blames the government for turning the Animal Welfare Council into a smokescreen and letting the situation turn into a veritable mess

The horrifying pictures of three tal-Fenek dogs strangled in a Gozo farm earlier this month shocked the nation, but coming in the wake of equally sickening pictures and press reports about the situation at the government abattoir, it is time to face the realities that have been hidden for years and sanctioned by none other than the authorities.
For Marica Mizzi, the popular actress, TV presenter and long-time animal rights activist, it is a question of hypocrisy. Since she was a child when she still ate meat, she was always troubled by the question about why animals should suffer for human beings.
“As I grew older I did my own research, became more careful in checking everything I bought to make sure it was not made from animals’ skins. I always wanted to know more and to get to know the process behind every product,” she says.
Once you know what’s behind the process that leads to the packaged meat in your freezer, Mizzi says the dilemma is inevitable. “The problem is that many people today do not want to know the truth. They do not want to know the process that leads to a chicken in their freezer so that they can remain at ease with their conscience,” she says.
To that end, she invested time and money to produce television programmes like Ir-Renju ta’ l-Annimali and Id-Dinja Darna through her company Image2000, in a bid to raise awareness about the fair treatment of animals.
“We had programmes focusing on a day in the life of a cow, for example, following one from the farm to the slaughterhouse, and what happens there,” she says. “We used to get a lot of complaints from people asking why we were showing that kind of material. Whenever I had the chance to answer them myself I would ask them if they had meat in the freezer. They would react as if that had nothing to do with it, because they are comfortable to see the packed meat without knowing how it arrived there. They’re happy as long as they don’t know. I always quote Linda McCartney – if slaughterhouses had glass walls the whole world would be vegetarian. I believe that is true, because the majority of people have a conscience, but as long as they don’t know what’s happening they are not bothered.”
Yet with the revelations on MaltaToday and Maltastar about what is really happening at the government slaughterhouse in Marsa, the public is now well informed, despite the government’s attempts at keeping EU-commissioned reports by foreign vets secret. They detailed, step by step, the painful and cruel transport of cattle and pigs from farms to the slaughterhouse, the terrible conditions they are kept in and the trauma they have to go through even while they are being stunned to death after repeated unsuccessful attempts with inadequate equipment.
Mizzi is clearly angry at the government for keeping the damning reports under wraps, although she says she feels lucky, at last, that her long held views have been confirmed.
“To all those who say I’m an extremist, I’m finally lucky enough to have press reports exposing what is really happening at the slaughterhouse, proving what I’ve been saying all along,” she says. “I ask why this report, concluded last September, has been kept secret by the government and has only come out now after it was leaked to the press. Who kept it secret and why? For what reasons? I also want to know what the veterinary department – which is responsible to monitor what goes on at the abattoir – what was it doing all these years? Why did they let the abattoir management disregard laws and regulations for ages? Why did we need vets from abroad to learn about the shameful situation there? Aren’t our vets capable to make their assessment? I hope I get an answer to these questions soon and whoever was responsible for what happened gets the necessary penalties.”
So far there are no answers, except a promise from Environment Minister George Pullicino to invest Lm400,000 at the slaughterhouse to bring it up to standard.
For Mizzi, it is a promise she does not take too seriously. For three years, she was on the Animal Welfare Council since its launch by the same minister, representing a coalition of NGOs. Last June however she resigned as she felt it was going nowhere. Although the minister informed her he was not accepting her resignation, that’s where it all stopped and her protestations hardly received any hearing. In fact, she is not even summoned anymore for council meetings.
“The reason for my resignation was that after three years on this council drafting lots of laws and regulations, lots of things I was confident would happen such as pet shops’ regulations and regulations for cabby horses, strays and kennels, nothing was happening,” she said. “I also felt the council was unbalanced, because the minister appointed veterinarians from the veterinary department, a chairperson from the national abattoir and just two people representing NGOs – George Manchè representing SPCA and myself. We were the only ones truly representing animal welfare interests, and we were always in a minority.”
It is clear Mizzi could not see eye to eye with the vets on the council – their interests are totally different, if not conflicting.
“It’s obvious – in fact most of the vets work at the abattoir, the place where, unfortunately, the very council meetings were held, a place that is totally deplorable in my view, and not just in my view. We devoted lots of hours of voluntary work to this council. Looking back, I ask myself what has really come out of all that. Are local wardens getting training so that they could recognise cases of animal cruelty? A warden knows exactly how to give you a ticket if you park wrongly, but what does he do if he sees you mistreating your dog?”
Mizzi also had to face the anger of her fellow activists who were flooding newspapers with letters to the editors asking what the animal welfare council was doing.
“That used to hurt me,” she says. “I was somehow conditioned through my appointment, as opposed to before my appointment when I was vociferous on the media. If I criticised anything while I was on the council one could easily turn back to me and say I should have done something on the council. I think that in reality this council was only set up because it had to be set up, because of the European Union. It was mandatory to set up the animal welfare council. But beyond its setup, the EU doesn’t seem interested in whether this council is working or not. I don’t even know if the council has met at all since I resigned.”
Beyond the government’s intentions, however, it is somehow paradoxical that animal NGOs seem to be exclusively concerned about the treatment of cats and dogs.
“Yes, unfortunately many people in NGOs speak only of cats and dogs,” she admits. “Now I don’t want to minimise in any way the great work they are doing in the sanctuaries in a very dedicated and voluntary way. But it’s true, unfortunately I find myself talking to them, who are very good friends of mine, and when I ask them if they read the reports about the abattoir it’s not something they see as shocking. But on the other hand the incident of the three dogs killed in Gozo – something I absolutely condemn mind you – but the great outcry there was all over the islands is then a bit strange. It’s like when four swans were killed – there was an outcry, but I say there are so many chickens killed everyday, why are we discriminating here? Is it just because one bird is more beautiful than another? It’s a question of culture at the end of the day; many people are raised thinking that animals are there to be eaten. For me eating a rabbit and a dog is the same thing, but many find that shocking.”
Despite her firm personal belief that any kind of animal slaughter is unacceptable, Mizzi does appreciate the different levels of animal treatment.
“I find it a bit hypocritical to condemn someone beating a dog while at the same time participating in the killing of an animal by eating it,” she says. But then goes on to add: “What I find really unfair is that there is such a demand for animals that humans have ended abusing animals so that they produce much more than is natural. Why should a chicken be injected upon its birth so that it grows rapidly, so that in six weeks it appears as if it is six months old? And in reality it can’t carry that weight for its age. So of course there is a difference between that and someone who has a dozen free roaming chickens that are well fed and laying eggs … I don’t see that as bad as an oppressive chicken farm meant only to mass produce those poor animals. I still don’t approve, personally, but it’s much less cruel. At least that chicken is given a chance to live a more decent life. I’m into cruelty free farming. Let’s work at least for that, so that if an animal is going to live for six months at least it would live them decently, not like in hell.”
Another failure of the animal welfare council is to implement easy solutions to the problem of stray cats and dogs.
“The problem of strays has remained a problem because government never did anything to solve it. Why? Because there is a good number of NGOs trying to solve it. We have always said as World Animal Conscience, and this was also discussed on the animal welfare council, that there should be a fund created through a programme of micro chipping of pets. So a dog owner would be legally bound to microchip his pet against a one-time fee, which would go to this fund to be used to neuter stray animals.
“We are lucky enough that many people, particularly housewives, feed stray animals, so they are at least fed. But there is the reproduction problem – a cat and its offspring can produce up to 70,000 cats in seven years. Microchipping would also mean that if you abandon your pet on the road you can be immediately tracked down once the pet is found. We made our proposals on the council but they were never taken up, and I have no idea why. It’s pathetic.”
Mizzi is however an optimist. She believes that through education that instils values of love and care towards animals, a whole new generation can be really different, and she is witness to this success.
“Thankfully today there is a group of teachers who have been appointed to go in schools and talk about animal awareness. A lot of schools are also celebrating a yearly animal care day. It still stops at dogs, cats and maybe birds, and there’s more to be done. I don’t expect to convert a 55-year-old hunter, but I do believe we can have a generation raised in a culture of values of love and care towards animals.
“Take circuses for example. At no point did I tell people not to go to the circus. I showed realities of what happens to animals in the entertainment business. If you have values and believe that is cruelty you won’t go, but it’s your choice. When a circus came over five years ago we were maybe a dozen protesters; this time we were much more, because there is much more awareness. Even if you look at statistics, the schools that took children to circus five years ago were much, much more than this time. I believe the protest and education campaign were a success, and I’m sure there were people who would have gone to the circus but had a rethink.”
She also finds that great improvements have been made by the authorities in dealing with reports of animal abuses – the main problem remain the magistrates who are mostly insensitive to the suffering of animals, handing down pitiful fines for some of the most atrocious and vicious cases.
“Thankfully, while before reports of abuses would fall on deaf ears, today there is the Administrative Law Enforcement – and here I mention in particular Inspector Miruzzi – who are immediately receptive to reports of cruelty. People know they can call the police if they witness any abuses, and the police cooperate a lot. Unfortunately while the law today prescribes a maximum fine of Lm20,000, it is totally up to the magistrate to decide the fine, and that’s what saddens us most, because after all the work put into catching abusers they remain virtually unpunished once they are arraigned in court.”
Besides protecting animals, Mizzi says Malta is also missing out a lot on the benefits of having them around children and vulnerable people who are being denied the great rewards of pet therapy. Trained dogs abroad are taken to visit children in hospitals, elderly and lonely people and persons with disabilities.
“Unfortunately it doesn’t happen here but abroad it’s very widespread,” she said.
What we have instead is an unfathomable obsession to ban dogs from public gardens, even if they are on a leash with responsible owners. “It’s completely unexplainable. I’m denied the right to walk my dog in a public garden, even if I am responsible and holding it on a leash and am a responsible dog owner. What way am I destroying the environment by walking with my dog in a garden? I’d like an answer to that, too.”