While Repubblika and Jason Azzopardi are busy with Magisterial Inquiries, the Nationalist Opposition in Parliament is busy defending the right to own Bully breeds in Parliament. The Shadow Minister for Animal Welfare will present as motion in parliament to repeal the government’s notice banning the breeding of Bully dogs. You can read the motion here and the Government’s Legal Notice here.
The Government’s Notice is short in scope, but it is the first step into the right direction to completely ban the breeding and sale of Bully breeds. The Legal Notice bans the unlicensed breeding and keeping of Bully breeds and other types of dangerous dogs. This Legal Notice is actually one of the very few things that the Labour government has got right in the recent years.
I fully support a ban on dangerous dog breeds in Malta. As a highly dense urban area, no one needs Bully breeds, which were originally bred to fight dogs and other animals. The absolute majority of the fatal and dangerous dog attacks recorded in Malta were by Pitbulls and these dogs are popular among criminals for their use in dog fights and other violent activities. Legally, owning a dangerous dog should be at least, as restrictive as owning a gun. It should however be even more restrictive given that apart from owning a potentially dangerous thing, you are also owning a living being, and hence comes with it even more responsibility.
The next step forward should be to outright ban the breeding and importation of any dangerous animal. Janice Chetcuti should pass a private member’s bill with this proposal if she really loves animals, or is slightly concerned with issues such as security. As an actual owner of a Bully breed and a dangerous dog, I find her posturing opportunistic and outright wrong.
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