Updated| Sick dog runs away from Ghammieri

The mixed breed dog had been collected on Wednesday 13 from an office in Birkirkara and was taken to Centru San Frangik.

The vet found a mammary gland tumor on her right side of her back. The initial medical record noted the tumor as the “size of fist” and recommended “to remove lump as soon as possible”.

It was decided to send her back at the Ghammieri Farm on Thursday and to keep her for a day so as to make her fast before the operation. As the Animal Welfare Directorate report reads, it was decided not to operate “there and then for the dog needed to fasten for a certain time before it could be operated in order to be given the anaesthetic for the recommended operation”.

The dog was thus transferred to the Animal Centre in Ghammieri where it was “left in a room since our policy is not to chain dogs.”

In a reaction to the story sent by the Ministry for Resources and Rural Affairs, it said “it would be very unfair to judge the Animal Welfare Directorate’s valuable work on just this instance. This was the first time an incident of this sort happened at Ghammieri and the departments assures this will never happen again.”

The reaction specified that “the bitch was kept in the specifically quoted Room 14. This is just a normal room which happened to be the only one available at that time of the evening.”

The two Officers had put her alone so as not to put her with the other dogs in their respective pens since she was neither to eat or drink to get ready for the operation, the reaction read.

However, as soon as the dog carer opened the door, the animal escaped.“The dog carer could never imagine that this dog would flee in a second being in such a condition,” the report from the Animal Welfare Directorate reads.

The Ministry’s reaction states “ on Friday morning, the carer went first thing to see upon the bitch which was supposed to be very quiet and in, true fact, as soon as he opened the door she just fled away without him succeeding to catch her.”

In the defence statement, the Ministry explained that, even though “the rooms should should be properly equipped with two security door and so on, (in fact all other pens have such measures) but since in these last weeks our offices have been bombarded with calls in need of the ambulance to rescue the injured strays it was thought best to make the of use out of all space.”

The Ministry sustained that “the Animal Welfare would never leave these injured strays out in the streets because of space, and since no animal is put to sleep, at times these rooms are a God sent!”

“When the lady’s father called so as to get information with regards to the bitch, he was told the truth, that his bitch ran away.”