Two race-horses killed in arson

The owner of two race-horses which died an agonising death by fire on Monday night believes his animals were killed because their repeated successes at the races irritated people.

The horses were burnt alive after they were beaten up and locked in a garage in Kirkop.

Animal welfare organisations yesterday expressed outrage at the atrocity and called upon the authorities to stop dragging their feet on the new animal welfare act.

The owner of the horses, 20-year-old Stephen Farrugia, of Kirkop, said the horses were A1 race winner Silver Ego, Swedish bred, and Dandinurian, a Finn. Both were 12 years old.

He said he had owned Silver Ego for a year and in that period the horse won 25 races. He only bought Dandinurian two months ago and it came first twice. The horses cost him Lm4,000 but were worth much more, he said.

Mr Farrugia said he could not understand why people would want to harm innocent animals, especially when he did not have enemies and was friendly with everyone.

He believes that his horses' winnings must have irritated someone who then took it out on the poor animals. Even pictures of his horses in the races were destroyed and he managed to save only a few.

He said that whoever killed his horses beat them up first, and put them together into the same garage - one horse was kept outside as the garage is located on a farm. The perpetrator then took straw from outside and placed it in the garage, setting it on fire and locking the door.

Mr Farrugia said Silver Ego last took part in a race 15 days ago and ran second. The animal was due to race again on July 7 at Mqabba as part of the village feast celebrations.

He said Silver Ego's luck had certainly changed: the horse had not been injured when it escaped some seven months ago and went roaming around the village. It had later returned to the garage unharmed.

Mr Farrugia used to visit his horses daily after work, spending around six hours with them.

Jockey Simon Cachia, 31 of Siggiewi, has been riding Silver Ego for the past six years, long before it was bought by Mr Farrugia.

He described the horse as a good, obedient animal that would be sorely missed.

The horses were not insured.

The police said in a statement that they were informed by the Civil Protection that there was a fire at an unnumbered garage in Ramlija Street, Kirkop at around 3 a.m.

Preliminary investigations showed that unknown persons entered the farm where the garage was situated, forced entry into the garage where there was one horse, took the other horse which was in the courtyard into the garage, put some straw into the garage and set it on fire.

The garage suffered structural damage. An inquiry was held, led by duty magistrate Tonio Micallef Trigona.

World Animal Conscience chairman Michael Pearson urged the police to come down hard on the perpetrators of the incident and "to make an example of them".

"It's difficult to find words to describe this kind of atrocity. This looks like a barbaric act intended to target humans. If the defenceless animal was attacked to punish or hurt its owner, this is a cowardly way to deal with the problem."

Mr Pearson urged the authorities to use this incident as the first case under the Animal Welfare Act, and to imprison those who had committed the crime.

"At the end of the day, this is not just criminality, but the torture and murder of an animal. For me, this is as serious as killing a human being."

He said he could not understand how humans could be driven to commit such hideous crimes because of jealousy or maybe betting.

"There are some sick people out there whom the police had better deal with," Mr Pearson said.

Sarah Muscat from Nature Trust, who is also involved with the animal welfare coalition, was equally shocked to hear the news.

The delay in publishing the new animal regulations showed nothing more than the lack of dedication towards animal welfare in Malta, Ms Muscat said.

"We've called for this new legislation for years and yet we still have nothing. Being Catholics we should know better about the need for protection against all forms of cruelty."

Ms Muscat said that from her personal point of view, any person who had the heart to inflict pain on a defenceless animal would be equally dangerous when it came to humans.

"These people should be fined and imprisoned, unless we want to see repetitions of such ghastly acts," she said.

Kirkop council condemned the attack.