A man was fined €2,500 for breaching animal welfare laws by keeping his dogs locked up in cages that were too small. 

The case landed before the courts in Gozo last year, after animal welfare officers were alerted to the plight of two dogs who were being kept in cages, in a Żebbuġ garage, for long stretches of time.

An officer and a vet turned up to assess the situation, glimpsing the two caged dogs through the garage door that was left ajar.

The officers left a message with a neighbour for the dog owner, Noel Attard, to get in touch with animal welfare.

The man did call back, but when told to replace the cages with larger ones and to let his dogs roam freely inside the garage, he insisted that the cages were fine and that there was nothing to change. 

When the officers returned a month later, nothing had changed. 

Sometime after, animal welfare officers, accompanied by two policemen, once again turned up at the garage, informing the owner that they had been instructed to seize his dogs.

Those instructions were carried out and the two dogs were taken away, being ferried to the animal hospital at Ta’ Qali for a check-up. 

Meanwhile, their owner ended up facing prosecution for animal cruelty and ill-treatment of his dogs.

During proceedings before the Gozo magistrates’ courts, an animal welfare officer explained that the minimum length of the cage for a dog measuring between 30 and 50 centimetres, was to be 1.2 metres.

In this case, the length was 0.94 metres and the inner space of the cages fell short of the specified minimum, the court was told. 

On the basis of all evidence put forward, the court, presided over by magistrate Joseph Mifsud, acquitted the accused of animal cruelty but declared him guilty of breaching animal welfare legislation by failing to take proper care of his dogs. 

The cages did not conform to the specifications and measurements laid down by law and could not serve as “suitable housing” for the dogs which, furthermore, had not even been registered. 

Though the majority of Maltese and Gozitan people love animals, reports of animal cruelty surfaced from time to time, upsetting those, numbering a majority, who highly valued the well-being of animals, said Magistrate Mifsud, stressing that a strong message had to be sent out in this regard. 

The accused was fined €2,500 for ill-treating his dogs by failing to provide them with “suitable housing”.

Inspector Bernard Charles Spiteri prosecuted. 

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