Animal Activist Alison Bezzina has slammed the recent €150 government allowance granted to people who adopt pets from licensed animal sanctuaries, calling for the funds to be focused on the already “overstretched and hardly coping” animal sanctuaries.

“Every single sanctuary that I spoke is fiercely against the project and for good reason,” she claimed.

Earlier, Parliamentary Secretary for Animal Rights Clint Camilleri launched ‘The Adopt a Pet Allowance’ scheme in an effort to give stray animals a home.

However, the public’s reaction has been mixed at best, something which was echoed in Bezzina’s post on facebook, where she criticised authorities for failing to address more crucial issues.

“We don’t have money to fix the pens at Animal Welfare (Ghammieri) – so for another year dogs at Ghammieri have no heating, no bedding and water is coming in from everywhere.”

“We don’t have money to enlarge the space so that when an unchipped healthy dog is found roaming the street we don’t have to let him get run over before he is picked up by Animal Welfare.”

“We don’t have money for a nationwide neutering campaign which is what this country really needs the most if we are ever going to tackle the ever-growing dog population.”

“We don’t have money for decent and proper equipment so that Animal Welfare Officers don’t risk their lives every time they go out on a rescue.”

“We don’t have money to train such officers, and we don’t have money to have more than one emergency ambulance on duty with every shift,” she said.

Calling out Cammileri himself, she asked how checks and balances will be in place to ensure the animals are not abused when animal welfare does not have the resources to check such reports in a timely manner.

In fact, a recent case of animal abuse in a Paola construction site went uninvestigated by Animal Welfare despite being informed weeks prior.