Speaking to MaltaToday, Animal Welfare Commissioner Fleur Abela said that the case had been brought to her attention earlier this week, as she condemned individuals who needlessly raised the alarm by giving the impression that a wild animal is roaming the streets.<\/p>\n
Earlier on Thursday, Malta\u2019s animal welfare commissioner dismissed claims circulating online that a wild cat is roaming a residential area in Bormla, saying there was no evidence that a panther or jaguar is on the loose.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, a police spokesperson confirmed that a report concerning a large cat in Bormla had been filed on Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a statement, the Office of the Commissioner said it is aware of reports alleging the sighting of a wild animal within the locality. However, following checks with available sources \u2014 including individuals who initially raised the alarm \u2014 information gathered indicates that no wild cat is at large.<\/p>\n
The matter has been referred to the competent authorities, including the Directorate of Animal Welfare, for any necessary follow-up in line with their enforcement role.<\/p>\n
The commissioner\u2019s office stressed that no personal data, or information relating to any investigation connected to the case, will be disclosed. It added that the confidentiality of those who reported the sighting will be respected.<\/p>\n
The claim first surfaced online in a post by Terry Muscat, who claimed people told her of a wild black cat on the roof of a residence.<\/p>\n
She said that when people allegedly spotted the large animal, it jumped down \u201cthree storeys\u201d into the road.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Investigations are ongoing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Speaking to MaltaToday, Animal Welfare Commissioner Fleur Abela said that the case had been brought to her attention…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":492751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,128,338],"class_list":["post-492750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}