Gozitan sheep reprieved, but minister defends cull

A Gozitan court has upheld an injunction it had issued preventing the Veterinary Department from culling 300 unregistered sheep belonging to two farmers, The Times has learnt. However Resources Minister George Pullicino yesterday defended the cull, saying in reply to a parliamentary question that it was justified to safeguard public health. Magistrate Josette Demicoli threw out the department’s request for her original decision to be revoked, saying nothing had changed since she had issued an injunction to prevent further culling. The department filed an urgent request a fortnight ago asking for the injunction to be revoked. It requested the court’s permission to go ahead and cull the remainder of a 500-strong flock belonging to farmers Gianni Attard and Emmanuel Vella. It argued that any animal not registered with the department was automatically presumed to be sick because its origins could not be traced. This constituted a public health hazard. The farmers, through their lawyer Kevin Mompalao, did not contest that the sheep were unregistered but asked the court to stop the department from culling any more sheep. In granting the original injunction last month, Magistrate...