Updated 6.45pm

A pitbull owner stabbed one of his dogs to death as they attacked him outside his home. 

Eyewitnesses have said André Galea used a knife to stab and kill one of the pit bulls after they began to maul him.

At around 1.30am on Monday, neighbours rushed to their windows and balconies after hearing screams and cries outside Galea’s Msida townhouse on Antonio Sciortino Street.

“The dogs were biting him to pieces,” said one witness.  

During the attack, witnesses said Galea pulled out a knife and stabbed the larger of the two dogs, a white pit bull which they said was holding on to Galea with its teeth and attacking his arms, face and hands. The fate of the dog was first reported by Malta Today. 

Galea himself was hospitalised after the incident but he was seen back in his Msida neighbourhood on Wednesday, both his hands bandaged.

Andre Galea hiding from his dogs on the roof of his car.

The Agriculture and animal welfare ministry said on Wednesday evening that an autopsy would be held on the stabbed dog. It said its officials arrived at Msida 15 minutes after they were informed of the case and they were involved for some two hours. A dead dog was recovered and an autopsy would be held.  

The ministry said the dogs involved in Monday's incident were not the same who fatally mauled Iniż Galea, André Galea's grandmother, in 2020. (André Galea stands charged with her involuntary homicide.)

Scared residents

Speaking to Times of Malta, sources familiar with the area said that this incident came as no surprise as they had witnessed many disturbances in the past.

“We’ve had issues with him for years,” a source said adding that these ranged from phone calls to police calls as 4am shouting matches woke nearby residents while strangers walked in and out of Galea’s residence at all hours of the day.

A dog pictured on the rooftop of Galea's home hours after the attack.

Multiple sources said they heard barking “all the time” and have voiced concerns over the well-being of the animals being kept at the property.

“I’m not comfortable and my mum is terrified,” one source said.

“At night, I don’t want to be around that house because this is the second time something like this has happened.”

On Tuesday evening, Animal Welfare officers collected eight dogs from Galea’s property.

André Galea, with bandaged hands, seen near his home on Wednesday.

Sources said that the dogs had not been fed since the attack while Animal Welfare Commissioner Alison Bezzina said that officials could not act earlier because they lacked permission to enter the property.

The dogs were living in “inadequate conditions”, Parliamentary Secretary for Animal Welfare Alicia Bugeja Said said in a Facebook post on Tuesday evening.

In the post, Bugeja Said expressed her support for the authorities who she believes “will be doing everything possible to achieve justice”.