WATCH | Romina Frendo: ‘We have a cat abandonment crisis, and government needs to step in’

Animal activist Romina Frendo sits down with Karl Azzopardi to discuss how she helped identify the Sliema cat killer, the need to address animal abandonment and the cat sanctuary she has opened on her house roof

Malta is facing a cat abandonment crisis, and unless government invests heavily to address the problem, it will only worsen, animal activist and volunteer Romina Frendo insists. 

A leading animal rights activist, volunteer and the owner of a new cat sanctuary, Frendo is known as the go-to person for all things animals. She is also the woman who brought people from all over the island together to help identify and eventually catch the cat killer.  

Japanese national Okamura Satoshi, a 31-year-old who lived in Sliema, was arrested on 1 August in connection with a series of cat killings across several localities. But apart from police investigations, before the case piqued national interest, Frendo was mobilising cat feeder networks from across Malta in a bid to identify him.  

She explains to me how she would go to Sliema to speak to residents, filtering through the information they provided, and passing it on to the police. 

“I had to put my life on hold to make sure he was caught, and he stopped killing these cats,” Frendo says.  

She praises the work of Inspector Jeffrey Scicluna from the police’s CID, who she says was her contact point in passing on her information. “He is a cat lover like us, and so he understood what this meant to us.” 

But Frendo’s work doesn’t stop at catching cat killers. She is also the owner of a brand-new cat sanctuary—on her house roof.  

“This has always been a dream. By 11 I had already planned out how I would build my sanctuary when I grew up,” she tells me.  

Frendo says she is spending every cent she owns to keep the place running, and wants it to be a haven for abandoned cats.  

“A lot of these cats have been abused. One of these cats was hit by a wooden plank with nails in it, and has lost its eye. Another was hit with a hammer in its tail and was left without any food. For these cases it’s not as simple to find them a home. They need specialised and focused care, and it’s not as easy to find,” she says.  

She also insists her sanctuary is only contributing a little to the wider abandonment crisis Malta is facing.  

Rise in food and vet costs, social cases and an aging population are all leading to more cats being left in the street, Frendo insists. 

The following is an excerpt of the interview  

How did you get to know about this cat killer situation? 

At the time I was correcting my students’ thesis, and during that period I go into a social media blackout. I was also not fully vested into the case in the beginning because I learn about a lot of cases, but people stay away from making a police report or going on the record with the information they know.  

But around three days after Facebook posts were beginning making the rounds, I learnt another dead cat was found.  

After I was done with my university work, I went to Sliema, and I started speaking with people. I was already working with the police, and people were telling what they saw and what they knew. The police were telling me they did not have any information, and they knew nothing, but it became personal for me, and I continued to work on it.  

As time went by, I continued to speak with residents close to where the cats were being killed, but at one point we realised that we have to go public with the case, and people needed to be aware of what is going on. We had organised a vigil, and the to my astonishment around 50 people showed up. Normally, people do not show up for these kinds of things. 

I think when information was being made public, it sort of became a national issue… 

Yes, I think the vigil was good move, as a lot of people started to get to know about the killings. The amount of people who came forward with the information also spiked after that event. Every piece of information I received I noted it down, and the relevant information I passed on to the police. I filtered through the large amount of information I was receiving so that I do not waste the police’s time.  

The biggest source of anxiety and frustration was that we were working against the clock. The day after he was killing these cats, people would find their dead body thinking it was roadkill, and would only call the cleansing department, meaning any evidence would be destroyed.  

I had to put my life on hold to make sure he was caught, and he stopped killing these cats. 

While I think what you were doing was noble, you assumed the role of a vigilante. But should it be you who is doing this work? Shouldn’t it be the police? How was their response? 

From my experience on this situation, it was important that I became the focal point for information. People would tell me they went to the police and filed a report, but “the police did not do anything.” In fact, what they were doing was just going to the police and handing over information without filing an official report. The police need solid evidence on which to charge people. 

A lot of people complain, but many stop at that. You on the other hand have done the opposite, and opened a sanctuary on your house roof. When did it all begin? 

This has always been a dream. By 11 I had already planned out how I would build my sanctuary when I grew up.  

When I was doing my PHD, in what should have been a time where I fully focus on my thesis, I was seeing pregnant cats all over Facebook. I had a room where I had no furniture, and I installed cages.  

I had around 60 cats, and I felt I was contributing. The mothers would be neutered and the kittens rehomed.  

But there would be these social cases where the owners can no longer keep the cats. Nowadays for sanctuaries to take in cats, they ask for a donation of around €200, which not everyone is willing to pay.  

I never asked for that kind of money, but would always take in the cats. I didn’t want to break the law, and so I formed and registered an NGO and applied to manage a sanctuary.  

I’ve invested a lot of my money into this place, and the rest I am spending on the management of it. 

The cats you have taken in—what’s their story? 

A lot of these cats have been abused. One of these cats was hit by a wooden plank with nails nailed into it, and has lost its eye. Another was hit with a hammer in its tail and was left without any food. For these cases it’s not as simple to find them a home. They need specialised and focused care, and it’s not as easy to find. 

For someone like you, who loves cats with a passion. I mean you’re using your roof top for a cat sanctuary rather than hosting BBQs like others would. How do you feel when you come face to face with these cases? 

This morning at around 5am while I was cleaning the area, I was visualising the abuse these cats were subjected to. While I wish I could have more free time to spend with my family or to go abroad, when I start thinking about these cases, it lights a fire inside me.