Is The Island Really too Small to Care for its Strays? - Is-Syd

Is The Island Really too Small to Care for its Strays?

An article written in support of Ms Betty Berry and SPCA Gozo

A few days after learning that everything will be remaining the same in the Ministry for Gozo, the real news struck: nothing will change in Victoria but Ms Betty Berry, the woman who for two decades has run the Gozo branch of SPCA almost single-handedly, has called it a day.

Betty, known amongst us Gozitans as 'l-Ingliża tal-SPCA', ran Gozo's only organisation dedicated to the care of stray animals.  Together with a few volunteers she drove around Gozo collecting abandoned animals, making sure they were treated if ill, neutered, cleaned and fed.  She ran Gozo's only 'ambulance' service for animals - meaning she drove around in her own car running on the fuel which she had bought with her own money in order to help those who, as we often say, do not have a vote.  Betty is that lovely lady we often met on the Gozo Channel ferry collecting money for her dogs and the organisation which, for years, had been operating on a shoestring.  

But that's to be no more.  Ms Berry gave up today, after years of uselessly begging the island's authorities to let her rent one of the many pieces of land it owns for use by SPCA Gozo.  She never asked for anything much: she just asked the authorities to allow her to build premises on a piece of government land, where her beloved dogs could be properly taken care of, using the funds she collected herself to pay the rent and take care of the animals.

As of today, however, Gozitans cannot call Ms Berry for her help when they find a hurt, stray dog.  They are being instructed to call the police, take the animals to a vet, the Animal Welfare Authority or the Ministry for Gozo, because Ms Berry's OFFER (not request) has been refused.  Betty Berry has bowed her head and graciously walked away, after making sure that the dogs she had collected from the streets will be safe.

Thank you Miss Berry. You were, and still are, one of those people who have given Gozo its colour and character.  May your cause be taken up again by yourself, or one of your volunteers, and may you finally be given what you have asked for for so long - not for yourself, but for the stray dogs of Gozo.  It is not true that animals have no vote.

http://www.spca-gozo.org/