In a news conference, Minister Anton Refalo and Parliamentary Secretary Alicia Bugeja Said announced that from today, October 1st, vouchers for cat feeders will begin to be distributed.
It was explained that the Directorate for the Appropriate Treatment of Animals collected information from the Local Councils on the registration of cat feeders and the amount of stray cats they feed. In this exercise a little more than 2,200 cat feeders were registered around Malta and Gozo. The allocation of €350,000 for this scheme was distributed according to the number of registered cat feeders, where each Local Council received a number of vouchers to distribute to the cat feeders according to their register.
Minister Anton Refalo said, “This initiative is important not only because we now have a register of cat feeders, but also because through this, we will see that we offer help to those who feed daily a number of cats, around Malta and Gozo. This is another clear demonstration of how much this is a Government that listens, a Government that fulfills what it promises. I look forward so that together we can continue to work for the welfare of animals.”
Parliamentary Secretary Alicia Bugeja Said said, “This is a Government that is clearly showing that it is close to the citizen and is continuing to give help where it is needed. We believe in the contribution that cat feeders are making in our society and we will continue to give them our support to continue doing more good,” said Bugeja Said. She ended by thanking all the cat feeders for their dedication when it comes to the protection and proper treatment of animals.
The Director of the Directorate for the Appropriate Treatment of Animals, Joseph John Vella, mentioned the process of how the information was collected of the cat feeders who are taking care of around 36,000 stray cats around Malta and Gozo. He encouraged all the cat feeders who registered for this scheme to collect their vouchers from their respective Local Councils.
The vouchers for the cat feeders can be collected from today 1 October and can be redeemed until the end of October from the list available from the Local Councils of establishments registered for this scheme.
