The San Lawrenz neutering project is to be officially launched tomorrow, in San Lawrenz Primary School grounds at 5.30pm in the presence of the Minister for Gozo, Mrs Giovanna Debono and the Parliamentary Secretary for Public Dialogue and Information, Dr Chris Said. The project is being supported by the British Blue Cross and the German ITV Grenzenlos.

Gozo SPCA said it has long held the view that the problem of stray animals on the islands is created by the abandonment of unwanted animals, particularly puppies and kittens. Through modern record keeping and maintaining a database of all animals picked up by Gozo SPCA personnel, this view has been reinforced by fact.

The figures for the past three years make disturbing reading, but just looking at those for the first 9 months of this year emphasises the size of the problem on this small island. It should be stressed that the situation is no better on our larger sister island, in fact there the problem is even worse as there are many more feral dogs and cats.

Since the 1st of January 2008 Gozo SPCA has collected or had brought in 312 animals, of which 47 were adult cats, 106 were dogs (including puppies) and 155 were kittens.

Of these kittens no more than 10 were feral, which means the rest were owned. These kittens in the main are too young to be viable and are found thrown in skips, put out in plastic bags for the garbage truck, dumped by the road and a good number are left outside the Gozo SPCA Rescue and Rehoming Centre. Many of the older kittens are friendly and have been well handled before being abandoned. The healthy kittens are brought into the Centre and after treatment for parasites, vaccinations and neutering they are offered up for adoption. Gozo SPCA premises are far too small to contemplate long term accommodation for kittens which rapidly turn into boisterous cats.

Puppies too are abandoned in the same way, many of them infested with parasites and some are just days old. Often it is an entire litter of 7 or 8 puppies dumped in a box in a field. For many there is no hope as they are too young, weak or sick to survive. Canine Parvo Virus is rife on the island; known as ‘the puppy killer’, this disease, along with many other diseases affecting dogs, is completely preventable if only all dogs are vaccinated when they are puppies.

So what is the answer? – neutering pets and preventing the birth of unwanted animals must be a better option, rather than abandoning them after they are born.

The Gozo SPCA said they have been very fortunate to have the support of the British Blue Cross Pet Charity, who have undertaken to cover the costs of the neutering of all the cats in San Lawrenz. They are additionally contributing most of the funding for the new neutering van, which will also be used for school visits and fund raising activities.

ITV Grenzenlos is a German animal welfare society which has been helping Gozo SPCA for several years now, particularly by taking some of our dogs to Germany for rehoming. Now they are going to cover all the costs of neutering the dogs of San Lawrenz.

The neutering of pets is performed by Dr. Frank Galea, who uses the latest techniques, which ensure a speedy recovery. The operation for males and females is safe and neutered animals will generally live a longer healthier life. All dogs will be micro chipped and all pets will have a free check up, to ensure that they are in good health.

It is hoped that if the project in San Lawrenz proves to be a success, it may well be repeated in other villages on Gozo.