Police disrupt dog fight after tip-off

The police yesterday disrupted a dog fight only about quarter of an hour after they were tipped off, but their prompt intervention immediately sparked off a controversy as no arrests were made.

According to a police statement, there were some 200 people on site and about 70 cars were seen parked in the area. The police said that though investigations were still underway, no arrests had yet been made.

The police said they received the tip-off at 5.45 a.m. and they were on site, a place in the limits of Siggiewi, within a quarter of an hour.

When the large group of people which gathered to watch the fight saw the police, they vanished together with the dog owners who left behind some pails of water and dog collars, police said. The water is usually used to separate the dogs during a fight.

The fact that no arrests were made on the spot angered a number of animal organisations who felt it was unbelievable that absolutely nobody, out of 200 people, was arrested during the raid.

The police confirmed that those who gathered to watch an illegal dog fight would be considered as accomplices.

The police insisted that just because nobody was arrested on the spot, did not mean that there would be no arrests in the future if the investigations reaped results.

The police thanked the anonymous caller because it could disrupt the fight and halted the cruelty to animals in the process.

"I am disgusted that nobody was arrested. It is scandalous. These people should have been arrested on the spot, if they were caught in the act," said Alfred Fenech, spokesman for the Association for Abandoned Animals.

When contacted in the UK, Michael Pearson of the Malta Animal Rights Coalition, said it was "amazing" that not a soul was arrested.

"To me, this episode was a police public relations exercise which backfired," he said.

"It is not always easy to find out where the fights are being held, so in such a case I think it would have been better to take a camera and catch the culprits in the act - this was a wasted opportunity.

"We are calling for the arrest of those who organise dog fights not for the police to simply disrupt a fight," he said.

Mr Pearson said the raid had been very badly organised.

"I mean why go there in the first place if not to arrest those involved? The police have put in so much effort that has gone to waste. I hope they do better next time," Mr Pearson said.

A spokesman for the Community Animal Welfare, too, insisted that those who organised illegal dog fights should be arrested and put in prison.

"We are very frustrated that nobody was taken in by the police. I know the ALE works hard, but they should have gone to the dog fight with enough back-up to tackle these people," he said.

Meanwhile, an article which appeared in The Times last month outraged the public and the Association for Abandoned Animals was inundated with calls from people arguing for harsher punishment for those responsible for dog fighting.

"About 80 per cent of the people who called me insisted that those involved should be given harsher penalties and some even called for the imprisonment of these people," Mr Fenech said.

Mr Fenech also received donations from people calling on him to continue fighting "against this inhumane and savage practice".

Two individuals called him from the UK saying they were disgusted that such practices were going on unabated in a Catholic country.

Dog fighting is illegal in Malta and a new law on animal welfare specifically lays down that "animal fights shall not be organised and nor shall animals be entered for animal fights".

Anyone who violates this law "shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine of not less than Lm100 but not exceeding Lm20,000 or to a term of imprisonment for a period not exceeding one year, or to both such fine and imprisonment".

However, despite being a move in the right direction, Mr Fenech feels the law is not being adequately enforced and too many people are getting away with it.

In The Times article, Mr Fenech said that dog fighting was rampant across the country and that at the moment there were about 50 fighting dogs in action.

Dog fighting usually takes place in the early hours of the morning and those involved bet thousands of liri on the animals.

The organisers of the dog fights have also taken to deciding on the venue for the fight at the last minute so that the police would not learn of their whereabouts.

What outraged the public most was that if a dog lost a fight or was too battered to ever fight again it was either burnt to death or drowned.

If a dog is badly injured but could be nurtured back to health its owners would take it to the vet and after a few weeks the animal would be back in the fighting ring.

A vet who did not wish to be named had said that vets were under no particular obligation to report these incidents.

"We are duty bound to report a crime, like any other Maltese citizen. However, even if a vet can tell from the wounds that the dog was in a fight, its owner can easily come up with the excuse that the dog ran away and got caught up in a one-off fight. We would not have witnessed the fight to be able to report it," the vet said.

"On the other hand there is also a bit of professional secrecy in the sense that if we report the owners they will not bring the dog back to be taken care of and they may let it die without being given the proper attention."

However, Mr Fenech feels that vets should start adopting more of a role in this matter and if an injured fighting dog is taken to them they should not let the owner leave their premises with the animal.

"If the owner insists on taking the dog back then the vet should report him to the police. This is what vets do in the UK,"

Mr Fenech noted that the people who were involved in dog fighting were "tough guys" who had no scruples and vets were often scared to take the matter into their hands.