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Over the Christmas period, Atlas Insurance and its employees raised funds through donations in aid of three NGOs in order to help alleviate the negative impact that COVID-19 had on the fundraising opportunities of these organisations.
In total, Atlas donated a total of €7,500. The NGOs benefitting from this donation are the Foodbank Lifeline Foundation, Caritas and the Association for Abandoned Animals (AAA).
“Every Christmas is a time of giving and the last one was a particular one as many people faced increased hardships due to the ongoing pandemic. Team Atlas has done a great job, as we do every year, in contributing funds to organisations that are in need of help. We were particularly pleased that our team collected a record amount this year when it was so needed,” Matthew von Brockdorff, managing director and CEO of Atlas Insurance, said.
The energy ministry is looking at options to help animal sanctuaries after a young activist drew attention to their plight, sending a letter requesting the waiving of their water and electricity bills during the pandemic months.
In her handwritten plea to Energy Minister Miriam Dalli, nine-year-old Kristina D’Amato asked whether the government could “help all the sanctuaries not pay water and electricity bills during a time when they were no longer able to fundraise”.
“I am sure that the animals will be very happy with some kind of help,” the dog-lover-turned-fundraiser for their cause said.
She signed off hoping to meet Dalli one day “so together we can make the world a better place” and was soon driving to the Association of Abandoned Animals premises, in Birżebbuġa, in the minister’s car to participate in a corporate social responsibility event and donate food and other items to the dogs there.
People who rescue dogs and hand them over to the Animal Welfare Department should be allowed to adopt the rescued animal following a rigorous vetting procedure, commissioner Alison Bezzina is urging.
As things stand, anyone who finds an abandoned dog must report to a police station, veterinary clinic or Animal Welfare Department to check whether the animal has a microchip featuring its owners details.
If rescuers then care for the dog at their home and no one claims ownership of the animal, they can adopt it after seven days.
However, if they hand the dog over to the Animal Welfare Department, they are relinquishing their right to adopt the animal.
Time to take animal welfare more seriously | Alison Bezzina
ALISON BEZZINA has had a baptism of fire after her appointment as Animal Welfare Commissioner: but despite threats and pressure, the long-time animal rights activist sees improvements in the standards of animal protection
23 December 2020, 7:51am
by Raphael Vassallo
You are the third Animal Welfare Commissioner to have been appointed since the role was established; and you are separately also a well-known animal rights activist in your own capacity. Do you yourself interpret your appointment as a sign that government is finally animal welfare more seriously?
I’d like to interpret that way; and also as an acknowledgement that – even if the former commissioners did do a lot of work – raising awareness might not have been top of the agenda, because they tended to focus on other things… and were therefore not being seen to be doing the work they did.