Jean Pierre Abdilla, 31, a former police force member in Malta, has been jailed for 16 years and fined €40,000, and had all his property confiscated after he was found guilty of conspiring to deal in heroin, trafficking in the drug and breaching administrative law enforcement regulations. These included attempted trafficking in illegal migrants, possession of protected bird species and trying to bribe a government official. The cases happened on and before March 2005 when he was a serving officer. The jurors found Mr Abdilla guilty by seven votes to two for conspiring to traffic up to a kilogramme of heroin, possession of the drug and trying to bribe an immigration official.

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As I'm writing this story it is still unknown what the outcome will be but it's so heartbreaking that we’re all praying it will be a good one.

This little fella was brought to Animal Tracks with his mother a while ago. The mother had suffered an injury to her leg and what initially looked like a simple procedure and recovery soon turned from bad to worse because it turned out she was also carrying a serious infection which affected her internal organs and made her very sick. As this was unknown to the vets at first they didn't become aware of this until she was too sick to recover. Sadly she didn't make it and her little baby was left orphaned. He was so young and still depended on her. Sometimes in these cases a surrogate mother can be found but no other mothers were at the centre at the time so it was up to the staff to act like the new guardians.

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It has been FAR to long since you've had any news from me but believe me, it's not because nothing has been happening at Animal Tracks. In fact there has been so much going on that I'm having trouble picking out the stories these days!

Last week an old member of the centre dog gang returned to us. Her name is Peggy and she first came to the centre about a year ago when she had suffered severe injuries following a road accident. She had a badly fractured front leg and a bad wound on her side. She belonged to a local family but the vets agreed to admit her because her injuries were so severe. They had no choice but to amputate the leg and the recovery time was long.

It was prolonged by the fact that Peggy was too active just to sit still in the kennel and wait for her wounds to heal and her jumping around kept breaking the stitches open.

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In the same week that I collected 10 abandoned kittens on just one visit to the local town's fish market, I also encountered unexpected concern for one of the long term market dogs.

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A ban introduced by the Director General for Education in Malta on school visits to the circus and the dolphinarium has delighted International Animal Rescue and its campaign partners. Initially the education department only banned school visits to the circus but, after persistent pressure from welfare groups, it announced that visits to the dolphinarium were also to be prohibited. This is a tremendous victory for animals in Malta. Campaigners are now working to persuade private schools' associations to follow suit.

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