Some blame must also be borne by the media who turned Freddie Fenech into a kind of folk hero, portraying him as a providential saver of dogs and never investigating his activities.

(I was away when this affair became public and could not comment earlier about it)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/5153717/First-Dog-Bo-arrives-at-Barack-Obamas-White-House.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waEryHRUEoM

Just to let you know. Re bunnies, I only eat chocolate ones. I don’t eat meat, I don’t wear fur and leather and I don’t buy animal products.

[Daphne – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_la5XiQJdk&NR=1 ]

[Daphne – A little knowledge is a dangerous thing and a non-lawyer trying to interpret the law is even more dangerous. The fines are not for breeding, but for abuse.]

This is not just some cruelty of some dog-owners but the reality in so called puppy mills where pedigree dogs are bred as the owners of these puppy mills are just greedy for the money and don’t care how many litters a bitch has as long as she produces litter over litter. [Daphne – And exactly what do you think happens in nature? That bitches go to the Dog Gynae and get a prescription for the Dog Pill, which they then buy from the Dog Pharmacy? Let me lay it on really thick here: what do you think happens to women in nature, or rather as laid down by the Catholic Church before it discovered the ‘rhythm method’? A baby every year between the age of 18 and the age of 42, and then death at 50.]

Female dogs [Daphne – You mean bitches.] are usually bred the first time they come into heat and are bred every heat cycle. They are bred until their poor worn out bodies can’t reproduce any longer and then they are killed. [Daphne – Oh golly, I’m going to have to give this one a biology lesson, I think. Mr/Ms Bugeja, in the wild, the female of any species of mammal conceives every time she is on heat. In nature, that is the only point of a female: conceiving and reproducing. They conceive, they reproduce and then they die. Human beings were the same before modern life intervened. Women rarely lived beyond the menopause.]

Often they are killed by being bashed in the head with a rock or shot. That why I think breeding should be banned. [Daphne – Given your line of reasoning, we should ban childbirth because there is such a thing as infanticide.]

Also I’m surprised that you cut out your contradiction I found regarding your dogs instead of giving a reasonable explanation. [Daphne – What contradiction? That my dogs are not neutered and yet I don’t breed them? That’s not a contradiction. Women don’t rush off to have their tubes tied when they’re done having children, nor do they dispatch their husbands at gunpoint to get snipped.]

How can someone be so cruel? To understand what trying to keep strays off the roads means, you must go and work as a volunteer even just for a week, then tell me if you have the heart to ’round strays up and put them down’.

[Daphne – Believe me, I would have no problem at all, if I couldn’t find them a home, of course. There’s no room for maudlin sentiment in these situations. I find it quite odd that you revolt against the thought of a newborn kitten being killed with a blow to the head, when every week on these islands, hundreds if not thousands of rabbits are killed in precisely the same way. How do you think they reach your table – by lethal injection? That would make their meat unfit for human consumption. Your definition of cruelty is subjective – no doubt, mine is, too. I think it is cruel to keep animals alive to satisfy some form of misguided craving.]

You definitely do not know what you’re talking about. [Daphne – Yes, I do. I know what you know, and I interpret it differently. I don’t operate a sliding scale of animals which deserve to live and animals which don’t deserve to live. I’m not about to say that dogs should be provided with social services while cows and rabbits are killed to feed me – not that I eat rabbit.]

People should be educated in how to take care of their pets and NOT abandon them. [Daphne – Should, would, could….people ill-treat children, Anthea. Of course they are going to ill-treat animals. Do you really think that the reason fathers burn their infants with cigarettes is because, when they were growing up, they were never subjected to an information campaign telling them they shouldn’t do so? Cruelty is an inherent part of human nature. Men beat women. Women beat children. Children torture cats. It’s got nothing to do with educational campaigns or the lack of them.]

And people should be encouraged to neuter their pets pure breed or not. [Daphne – Encouraged being the operative word, but what you really mean is forced.] We have too much strays here in Malta and associations like AAA which I personally know the volunteers and I was a volunteer myself do a lot of sacrifices and work because they love these creatures! [Daphne – Yes, I know one or two of the volunteers, too, and I agree with you here. Where we part company is in the belief that we should have institutions to house abandoned dogs. Dogs are just like any other animal. If there is nobody to look after them, and no money for their upkeep, they should be put down. Please explain to me how a dog is different to a cow, and I don’t mean the obvious, but the difference in status, as perceived by you, that gives a dog special rights that a cow does not have.]

And there should be laws against animal cruelty so maybe people one day will learn [Daphne – There are laws already and have been for more than a century.], and also it is a good idea that all dog and cat owners have their pet microchipped. [Daphne – Agreed.]

Breeding and importing more and more pedigree dogs (even breeds that are not suitable for this island) to make a quick buck (most breeders charge for their puppies) should be banned. [Daphne – Why, because you say so? If people want to buy and raise pedigree dogs, they have every right to do so. It’s really none of your business – or anyone else’s.]

I have seen more than my fair share of newborn puppies and no, they didn’t survive. Boxes and Boxes of dead puppies with the blood covered rock or piece of wood still laying in the box with them, as these irresponsible overBreeders didn;t want to get fined for having more breeding bitches then they were allowed. [Daphne – Fined for breeding dogs? I hardly think so.]

Older puppies and their mothers hidden in a dark room, with headwounds from being hit so not to bark etc. Yes I have seen it. [Daphne – More melodrama. It would help your argument if you could make the link between the cruelty of some dog-owners to a ban on breeding pedigree dogs.]

So you telling me that a newborn puppy or kitten is not a creature? [Daphne – No, I am telling you that the capacity of a newborn kitten to feel pain is markedly less than than of an adult cat. This is not a value judgement.]

Seems to me you an expert in these what i call “TORTURES” and “KILLING” an innocent creature. [Daphne – It happens all the time round where I live and it takes a second. Of course, it makes more sense to take your dog or cat to the vet for an abortion, rather than allowing the pregnancy to go through to term and then killing them as they pop out. But that costs money and takes time, and if I were to suggest it I would be considered quite frivolous. People who raise animals for food as a way of life, who kill chickens and take pigs to slaughter, are not going to come over all sentimental about a newborn puppy or kitten, I can assure you. They’d be pretty cracked if they did.]

A quick duck in a bucket????? Have you ever felt like you was drowning??? And yes here will come your argument that we are human and these are just animals, but the feeling of drowning I believe they would feel the same. [Daphne – Hardly.] Or a quick whack on the head?????? [Daphne – It hurts about as much and for as long as that killer injection you all seem to favour. One is ‘barbaric’ because it’s done on the spot, at home, for no money and with no white-coat-wearing professional around to lend a clinical air of authority. The other is not ‘barbaric’ because it takes place in a clinic. I happen to think the whole idea of injections and clinics to have more barbaric overtones than the more straightforward course of action. Shades of that Swiss clinic where people go to drink poison and die. There’s something sinister about the whole thing – why not just stay home and swallow a tub of painkillers? The real truth, of course, is that by handing over the deed to others we do not have to do it ourselves. By bringing in a third party, we can convince ourselves that we have nothing to do with it and that it does not constitute killing.]

You might be the expert knowing were to hit but that doesn’t mean everyone does, as i have experienced this in the UK, were they rescued puppies from a puppy mill with their heads split open as these breeders tried to do what you suggesting. [Daphne – I can assure you that no newborn puppy with its head split open would survive to be rescued. You don’t appear to have seen any newborn puppies. And I mean fresh out, not three weeks old with their eyes open. I’ve never done it myself, never having had reason to as we’ve always had nice dogs and so were able to home the puppies, but have you any idea how all those thousands of rabbits are killed for fenkati? That’s right….You know, there’s a lot to be said for exposing sheltered people to life in the farmyard.]

Don’t tell me that you believe animals don’t feel pain. [Daphne – I won’t, because I don’t. For pain to be felt by any creature, two things are necessary: a brain and nerves to send impulses to the brain. It follows, therefore, that any creature with a brain and nerves is able to feel pain. The ability of certain animals to feel pain has never been a matter of opinion but of biology.]

…….then there are dogs, which has been proven over and over again, as they are loyal and have saved thousands of lives. [Daphne – Dogs have also killed and maimed many people. That is neither here nor there. Dogs are domestic creatures selectively bred by human beings for particular purposes: hunting, sledging, guarding, and so on. They form a strong bond with a human master because they recognise that bond as essential for their own survival, and not because they can in any way work out that it is essential for the owner’s survival. Even when they are protecting their owner, they are, in effect, protecting themselves by ensuring the continuation of their supply of food and shelter. To suggest otherwise is to claim that dogs are capable of the human emotion of altruism.]

And no, I’m not talking about animals that have been bred for these tasks but mongrels, even after been cruelly beaten by previous owners, still seeing the good in humans. [Daphne – You really know nothing about dogs, do you? Mongrels remain essentially domestic creatures. You can’t change thousands of years of genetic evolution by crossing a labrador with dalmation with a terrier with a poodle. Dogs turned out onto the streets at a very young age will become feral, but any puppies born to them and taken into a home, will be just the same as any other socialised dog. Feral dogs are not the result of genetic changes but of social circumstance. Dogs do not ‘see the good in humans’. They recognise humans as a source of food, shelter and company. What they see in humans is good accruing to themselves. All animal behaviour is driven by survival.]

Also I hope you are actually a sensible owner who has her animals neutered so you don’t have to whack or drown them. [Daphne – My dogs are dogs – in other words, male. They have no access to females and hence, do not need to be neutered. Over and above that, one of them comes from prize breeding stock at an international level and neutering him would be a crime.]

I really can’t understand your arguments.

“The idea that a dog’s life is precious and should be preserved while a cow’s is not and therefore a cow can be killed is completely alien to me.” Speak for yourself. [Daphne – That’s exactly what I’m doing. But if you wish, I can call on the services of a biologist to point out to you that an animal is an animal is an animal, and on an anthropologist to point out that it is only cultural bias that gives dogs superior status to cows. In India, cows are sacred and dogs are dirt. In Islam, dogs are absolute filth and not allowed anywhere near humans. In Korea, they are eaten.]

“Animals do not need ‘second chances.” Ohh, thats really kind from us ‘humans’. [Daphne – Next time you have a slab of fillet on your plate, ask it whether it might like a second chance.]

“The solution to stray dogs is to round them up and put them down. And I like dogs.” I see that you really do. [Daphne – Yes, I do. And what’s more, I understand their psychology. They no more enjoy being packed with hundreds of others behind wire than do the human beings in our detention centres. Yet we consider it acceptable to keep them in those conditions for the rest of their natural life, because any kind of life is better than death. Wrong – we’ve taken the arguments used for human life and applied them, erroneously, to dogs.]

“It’s much more humane to whack them over the head or drown them.” If Hitler was still alive!!! [Daphne – Hitler was an animal lover, which just goes to show that a love for animals is no great indicator of a person’s character, though I must say that cruelty to animals doesn’t bode well. That said, I have no patience for people who consider animals equal to humans, and I have even less patience for the blasphemy of comparing a thwack to the head of a newborn kitten with the gassing, torture and death by starvation of millions of people in extermination camps.]

“Those who run animal sanctuaries neither lay down the law nor interpret it.” Do you? [Daphne – I certainly don’t lay down the law but I live with a lawyer and when I need to know something I just give him a shout. Not that I need to do so most times, because the law is logical. Once you know the basic principles, and always assuming you can think clearly, there is not much room for confusion on such straightforwardly obvious matters as whether killing an animal constitutes murder.]

The problem in this Smart Island is the selfishness of the people. We think that the animal is at our disposal. [Daphne – I hate to disabuse you of your notions, but yes, animals are at the disposal of humans. This is qualified by our duty to behave responsibly towards animal life.] We keep it as long as we want than we throw them out. [Daphne – What you are talking about here is lack of civic responsibility: the belief that you can dump your mess on others who will clear up after you. It has nothing to do with cruelty per se. It’s the same attitude that leads people to dump spent refrigerators in fields.] After that they will get caught and put down because they are not allowed a second chance. [Daphne – Second chance? I think you’ve spent rather too much time watching Disney films featuring talking animals wearing clothes.]

Please grow up and realise that we are just another creature like all others. [Daphne – Actually, we are not. There are fundamental distinctions between human beings and other creatures.] Who are we decide which animal should live or not? [Daphne – My point exactly. Bear that in mind next time you stamp on a cockroach, eat a chicken or poison a rat.]

Sorry if I offended someone but that’s the way I feel. [Daphne – Cheers to that.]

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to give my opinion and Happy Easter to you all. [Daphne – To you too, and remember – if you’re going to be consistent, stick to eating chocolate bunnies, not real ones.]

I really do not understand whose side you’re on! For heaven’s sake: how can you say that “drowning” or “whacking” on the head is not cruel? [Daphne – It is not cruel to a new-born as death is instantaneous. And there are no ‘sides’ in this debate; there are only opinions.] I’m not a vegetarian and neither are you: so that makes us both equal. [Daphne – Equal in what way?] But do not think that I accept animal cruelty. It is a tough subject which neither of us will win regarding poultry: vegetarians or non-vegetarians.

Of course, it’s a crime! [Daphne – No, actually it is not. Killing a human being is a crime, called homicide. Killing a foetus is a crime in Malta. But killing an animal is not a crime. How could it be?]

If you kill an animal deliberately and you do it in a barbaric way (like the method that you’re suggesting) then YES it IS a crime! [Daphne – No, it is not. The crime is cruelty, not killing. Of course you can argue that killing is in itself cruelty, and that’s the conundrum. Anything that brings about instantaneous death is not classified as cruelty.]

I didn’t say “murder”. But it is a crime. [Daphne – I repeat: it is not a crime. If it were, beef would have the same legal status as ivory. Killing a member of a protected species is a crime – an elephant, say, or a tiger or a panda, but that’s not because it’s an animal per se, but because it is endangered. The same legal situation applies with birds in Malta. You don’t commit a crime when you kill a sparrow or a chicken, but you comment a crime when you kill a falcon.]

Why are there campaigns against animal cruelty? [Daphne – Because all forms of cruelty, to animals and other humans, are unacceptable in a civilised society.]

Cruelty = actions which are not normal and horrible. [Daphne – No. It means causing physical pain and/or emotional distress to any living creature. Otherwise, by your definition, eating faeces would be ‘cruelty’.] Simple. I can assure you that cruelty is a crime. [Daphne – Agreed. But killing animals isn’t classified as cruelty. Causing them to suffer through prolonged and painful death is.]

Call the animal sanctuaries! See what they say Daphne! [Daphne – Those who run animal sanctuaries neither lay down the law nor interpret it.]

Who said I want the service for free? My point is one: that it is useless to have an emergency service which cannot be used on a mobile phone. [Daphne – While I agree that it is far from ideal, useless it certainly is not. I have used it myself, ringing from my home phone.]

I know there’s a charge and it’s about Lm2 (old currency) and it’s fine with me. But at least, let’s update ourselves to SmartMalta and let people use the service on their mobile phone. How? Easy dear Daphne! they just deduct the amount of the call from your credit. [Daphne – I don’t think you realise that this is all voluntary, and that nobody is obliged to do anything. We should be grateful for what is offered – on a voluntary basis – rather than criticising it for not being enough. If you feel so strongly about it, organise it yourself, instead of expecting others to do so and going on at them for not doing what you wish to see done. What’s stopping you?] just like what they do on fund raising events when sending an sms!

There are people who want free services, and I don’t agree with them because I do agree with you, Daphne, that some people do want everything for free, but I can assure you it’s not my argument.

So while I understand that it is very hard to see who is right, I think that the ultimate point should be that animals shouldn’t be left in torture: no drowning, no whacking, no burning no nothing. Shall we agree on that point?

[Daphne – The point at which we part company is your definition of a quick whack on the head to a newborn kitten, bringing about instant death, or a quick duck in a bucket, as ‘torture’. I can assure you it isn’t. If you’re that squeamish, you wouldn’t last two days on a farm.]