The Animal Welfare Department receiving an average of 10 reports of animal cruelty a day, which shows the public is becoming increasingly sensitive to the issue.
Department director Mario Spiteri said: "Not every report or complaint is justified, because some people have become overzealous in their mission. But we investigate each complaint and we're unearthing some awful cases."
The media coverage given to certain cases - such as last Friday's raid on the backyard of a Birkirkara residence where 25 fox terriers were found cooped up in chicken cages without access to water - have helped up the ante.
District police are investigating the 43-year-old owner from Birkirkara who would not disclose why he was keeping the dogs in cages, other than saying they were "ferocious".
However, the authorities are suspecting the dogs were being bred to be used as bait and sparring partners for fighting dogs.
Animal cruelty is an offence and the Animal Welfare Act specifically states that "animals shall not be kept tethered... in cages... unless they belong in each case to the species of animals specified in regulations prescribed".
Offenders face a maximum prison sentence of one year, a fine of between €233 and €46,587, or both.
Dr Spiteri called on the courts to hand out stiff punishments in the hope this would serve as a deterrent to others. The department has been kept busy in the past weeks, and after a report in The Sunday Times about a pack of dogs in Swieqi killing pet cats, Dr Spiteri and his team of three managed to round up the offending animals.
In a marathon operation that lasted from 9 a.m. until 2.30 p.m., his team scoured the area covering Pembroke, St Julian's, and Ibraġġ chasing the two big Machiavellian dogs, which were the pack leaders.
The department is working on a similar case in the Tigné and Qui-si-Sana area in Sliema, following reports that a fox terrier bitch and a big brown male dog are killing cats at the premises for the former Union Club.
"The root of the problem here is the turf war between the dogs and the cats, which fight over the food left by feeders for the once-sizeable stray cat colony," Dr Spiteri said.
However, he stressed that the real villains were people who abandoned animals, a problem that would only be properly tackled once all cats and dogs were micro-chipped.
The worst cases of animal cruelty discovered so far have been in Gozo. The department receives several reports from the Gozo SPCA as well as conducting its own inspections.
"Unlike Malta, where people willingly expose cases of cruelty and a few are even self-appointed watchmen, in Gozo secrecy still shrouds everything, making matters worse," he said.
One such incident discovered by the SPCA Gozo was a hunting dog tied without access to water or food, and left swamped in mud.
SPCA Gozo representative Betty Berry said: "The cruelty by neglect we are witnessing is dreadful and mind-blowing. Regretfully, some of the animals we rescue are past saving; we find them literally on their last legs."