Twenty-five fox terriers, cooped up in chicken cages without water and with bone scraps for food, were rescued from a backyard in Birkirkara by the Animal Welfare Department yesterday.

The department, accompanied by district police, swooped down after neighbours reported that dogs were cruelly confined in rusting cages, stacked on top of each other with no shelter from the scorching sun or rain.

Some of the dogs were too weak to stand on their legs, others had skin lesions and infections and the majority were malnourished, infested with blood suckers and covered in their faeces.

In some cases, there were two to three dogs squeezed into one cage. A spokesman for Noah's Ark animal sanctuary, which took in seven terriers, described the scene as a "canine concentration camp".

Contacted later in the day, Noah's Ark founder Fabio Ciappara said the seven terriers they took in had been scrubbed, fed and quarantined: "They're gentle creatures. They're learning to walk properly again after spending so much time locked in cages."

SPCA staff were on site to help in the operation and took a small number of animals to their kennels.

When the department personnel began to transfer the terriers to the vans, an unbearable stench permeated the air. Held by the scruff of their neck, the dogs trembled in fear but still managed to wag their tail.

"This is one of the worst cases of animal cruelty I've witnessed so far," one of the department employees said.

Department director Mario Spiteri said that, unfortunately, some of the terriers were in such a disastrous condition that they may have to be put down.

The 43-year-old owner from Birkirkara, who hurled abuse as his dogs were being taken away, was heard saying he kept them in cages because they were "ferocious".

Yet, lying down on a warm blanket in the back of a van, they licked their rescuers' hands and wriggled their behind the second they were given a bit of human affection.

The authorities are suspecting the dogs were being bred to be used as bait and sparring dummies for fighting dogs. Sources explained that the fighting dog would be kept hungry and the fox terrier brought out of the cage and fed a juicy bone. "This would work up the fighting dog and, once let loose, would pounce on the fox terriers, which are bossy and fighters themselves. But they don't stand a chance against, say, a pit bull. Why else would he be breeding fox terriers in cages?" the sources said.

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