Cat killer on the loose in Sliema

Walking along in Sliema my friend and I took a photograph of a ginger cat sleeping peacefully on the seat of a parked motorbike. Seconds later, a pit bull terrier ambled down the street and savagely attacked the cat, killing it in an instant, despite several people trying to stop it. The dog turned on one of the people, forcing him to get out of the way. Several people called the police and, after another cat had been attacked further down the street, the police apparently caught the dog.

This story in itself is bad enough but suppose the dog had turned on a child instead of a cat! My colleagues surmised that the dog had been kicked out by its owner, having let him down in a dog fight - said to be common practice here. If that is so, the owner is somewhat lower down the evolutionary scale than the dog. These dogs and similar breeds are dangerous and have attacked and killed children in other countries, forcing the governments to ban their breeding and import. Are they legally bred here? Surely not!