Gozitan shepherd hit with €651,175 bill for 'superfluous' police guard

Gozitan shepherd Ganni Attard has filed an urgent court application asking for it to order brucellosis testing on his herd and contesting a €651,175 bill for police sent to ensure all his animals were accounted for, accusing the health authorities of failing to carry out the standard tests on his animals without valid reason. 

Attard had also been slapped with a staggering €651,175 bill for a fixed-point police guard, which had been requested by the courts.

This emerged in an urgent request filed by lawyer Joshua Grech earlier this month in the acts of his ongoing Constitutional case against the Attorney General, the Commissioner of Police and the Director General of Veterinary and Phyto Sanitary Regulation before the First Hall of the Civil Court.

Attard, 54, from San Lawrenz, had hit the headlines in March when the courts had temporarily upheld an order staying the culling of his herd. The following month the decision was confirmed on appeal and the department was ordered to electronically tag the herd.

But in his court application Attard argues that while the tagging instruction was carried out, the standard procedure of taking a blood sample to test for brucellosis in parallel with the tagging of the herd was not followed.

The shepherd argued that the omission was incompatible with the department's intention to protect the public health.

Attard deplored the situation whereby it was only his herd that had not been tested and that it was the sole responsibility of the department to do so, according to law.

In spite of brucellosis testing being offered for free to Maltese and Gozitan shepherds, Attard claims that he is being asked to pay €900 for the initial test and €300 for subsequent monthly tests by the defendants.

The continued police presence at his farm is superfluous he adds, as his goats are now all tagged and accounted for by the Department.

On the 23rd August, Attard says, he was served with a judicial letter demanding payment for the staggering €651,175 cost of the fixed-point police guard. Pointing out that other shepherds whose flocks were also found to be untagged had not been placed under guard, he added that during previous hearings, the Office of the Attorney General had tried to weaken his position by shifting the responsibility for the police guard onto him.

“The request for fixed-point police security was requested by the Director General before magistrate Josette Demicoli in the Gozo courts and therefore the Director General alone is responsible” for the €651,175 bill due to the Ministry for Sustainable Development and Climate Change.

He insisted that he had been trying to bring his farm in line with regulations but had found opposition at every turn. His development application to build a room for cheeslet production, filed in 2012, was stuck in suspended animation, waiting for approval by Dr. Marica Gatt, Director General of the Veterinary and Phyto Sanitary Regulation department despite repeated reminders sent by his lawyer and architect.

Attard called on the court to order Dr. Gatt to approve the application and order the necessary tests on his flock.