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I am not so sure the maltese nation are a nation of animal lovers - more they have their uses and thats it... the rest of time theyre abused in all manner of ways....

I hate to see dogs tied up or locked in garages or on  roofs..but it is sadly all too common here - .its not fair - if they cant be allowed in your home and walked etc etc then you shouldnt have one simple as that

not sure what the answer is other than to complain to the admin of the block, but if you are the minority it isnt going to hold much weight - the next course of action i guess is the local council and animal welfare depts but you being the foriegner  that probably wont hold an sway either...other alternative is to move or maybe try the landlord and see if he can add some weight to the others landlords.

Couple of weeks ago I was walking our dog, when the animal welfare dept arrived to checked out a dog in our street. Someone reported it because the dog seems to spend all day every day on the balcony barking his head off. The animal welfare officer told me that there is not much they can do, the dog was in the shade, could go inside (they could see from the outside that he balcony door was open), had water and food. He told me that if the barking is bothering the other tenants they should report it to the police as the animal welfare can not do anything about it.

no surprises there then

Same goes with birds (and some of them can really be noisy and disturbing).

Maltese seems to like having birds in cage...
For me having a bird in cage is not a proof of being an animal-lover, and even something sellfish.

I always feel sad and angry when I see those poor birds, until 7-8 per cage, small and really dirty, when I pass by some shops.

we ve seen cages full of kittens and birds in so called pet shops here and i find it disgusting....the conditon of these creatures are terrible.

I approached one neighbor before in my experience in Malta and all I got was : don't your kidz cry and scream??
Well I guess that live in apartment blocks has it's pros and cons.
I totally agree with how they treat their dogs is just bad and beside that I think that to many of them they are just like little souveniers  to dress up and show off.
Hopefully someone will prove me wrong

Thanks everyone for the feedback.. seems there ain't much of a solution to this problem - talked to a local who had this problem himself and he did report it to the police - and guess what.. still nothing happened and last alternative was going to court. Bit ridiculous if there is not immediate solution to this. Even the peaceful locals are fed up by this problem themselves. You go walking through some villages on Gozo and the north of Malta, like Dingli, Barija, Manikata and Mellieha, makes you wonder how anyone can really put up with it.

normally people simply move - its usually the only answer to social issues like these and many more within all manner of accommodation not just apartments.

apartment living in general is full of all sorts of issues and takes a little getting used to if used to living in a house etc.

Move on and try to forget the problem, you don't need the stress.
I help out at our local animal sanctuary and there are Maltese that care but there are a lot that do not. The main problem is that they tend not to socialise their dogs this tends to make the dog bark when it see's or hears anything that is out of its comfort zone. Most Maltese  are frightened of dogs and will avoid them even if they are well behaved.

Terry

Yep that is the great mystery - why get a dog when it's just stuck on the roof 24/7? Says a lot about the household. A very very strange way to show 'love' to your animal. Know Maltese that as you said, socialize their dogs and it's part of the family and no problem with that.