Hedgehog illegally kept as a pet retrieved by Wildlife Rescue Team

Aug 27 2022

The Wildlife Rescue Team, responsible for protection of wild animals, has saved a hedgehog which was reportedly being kept illegally as a pet.

The team received a phone call stating that an injured hedgehog was found in the middle of the road, with volunteers finding that the 2.2 kilogram hedgehog is the heaviest one ever saved. Normally weighing between 800 grams and 1 kilograms, the hedgehog’s excess weight shows that it was being kept as a pet with a lot of food and little to no exercise.

Aptly named ‘Garfield’, the hedgehog is being tended to by veterinaries, both for his excessive weight and his back legs which can no longer support his body.

The Wildlife Rescue Team encouraged the public to not keep hedgehogs and other wild animals as pets as this is dangerous for the animals and illegal.

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Majority of Maltese citizens struggling with loneliness, study finds

Aug 27 2022

A recent study by the University of Malta suggests that most Maltese citizens have felt a sense of loneliness in 2022, seeing an increase by 11% over a period of three years.

The study found that 54.6 percent of Maltese citizens experience loneliness, a sharp increase to the 43.5% of three years ago – the results of which had emerged from a study held by the Faculty for Social Wellbeing.

The study was carried out by faculty dean Andrew Azzopardi, Professor Marilyn Clark and research support officers Jamie Bonnici and Annabel Cuff, who also suggest that while the COVID-19 pandemic marked a significant shift, it is not the whole story.

Azzopardi suggests that while the pandemic did expose society to such realities, factors such as shifts in family dynamics, lack of community services, unsupported family models, over-dedication to work, growing poverty and others contributed to the aforementioned findings in a major way.

This year’s study aims to measure loneliness in Malta based on the De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale developed by sociologist Jenny Gierveld through a set of binary questions. The survey sample include only Maltese citizens and not foreign nationals, which now comprise over 20% of Malta’s population. Of the sample, the 54.6% amounts to around 200,000 people with 4.6% – or around 17,000 people – expressing feelings of severe loneliness.

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Valletta player rushes from pitch to hospital to welcome newborn baby with wife

Aug 27 2022

Valletta midfielder Triston Caruana was just about to head down for his pre-match warm-up when he received a call that his baby boy is on the way, with the player rushing from the pitch to Mater Dei to welcome his son in the world alongside his wife.

“I was just about to go down for warm-up but you had other plans”, Caruana wrote before welcoming newborn Santiago into the world together with his wife Dorianne.

Caruana was not only set to play in Valletta’s match against Pieta Hostpurs’, but was also included in the starting 11 before he received the great news that his child was on the way.

Hundreds took to the comments section to congratulate the happy couple on the new addition to their family on Caruana’s most recent post.

Congratulations!

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Newly-elected Gzira councillor misses swearing in because council building lift was not working

Aug 27 2022

Investigations are currently under way by the Commission for the Rights of Persons with Disability after newly-elected PN Gzira councillor Mario Azzopardi was forced to miss a council meeting and his swearing in because the council building’s lift was not working.

The CRPD has since requested the council to provide detailed feedback on the incident and the actions which are going to be taken to address it, including plan of action and set of time frames.

The PN has also called discrimination against councillor Mario Azzopardi, with PN councillors revealing that the lift had been out of order for a while with no efforts made to fix it.

In light of this, commissioner Samantha Pace Gasan stated: “All Local Council premises and online platforms should be rendered accessible. This ensures that persons with disability can both participate on a political level in their localities, but also access services provided by the Local Councils.”

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