The Animal Welfare Department has accused the police of "framing" it over the killing of two dogs.

Police have insisted that the dogs were put down by the Animal Welfare Department a few hours after they were taken from their owner Kevin Caruana's home in Xemxija on August 26.

But Mario Spiteri, who heads the department, is insisting police gave the order, and has even identified the sergeant on duty. "This is a frame-up and I will not stand for it."

Dr Spiteri said dogs are normally put down after consultations with veterinary experts. "My department is assigned the duty of protecting animal rights, so any dogs recovered are put down only as a last resort."

Mr Caruana, who was out fishing when his dogs, named Stone and Achilles, were taken away, said he intends taking legal action to establish who killed them.

Four of the department's staff - Colin Kelly, Victor Tirchett, Paul Debono and Godric Marston - who were present when the dogs were taken, told The Sunday Times they arrived on the scene soon after the police called for assistance to handle a "ferocious" dog.

Mr Marston said the dog was handled and contained. Meanwhile, the police asked him to go for the other dog in the balcony because they feared he was going to jump down and attack them. He did so, using the ladder of the Civil Protection Department, who were also called by police.

"When I got to the balcony, I turned to the police officer and told him the windows were open. I thought this was important since the owner was not home. The sergeant told me he was authorising me to enter, so I did," Mr Marston said.

After bringing the second dog down from the balcony, the animal welfare staff said they asked police what they should do with the dogs and the sergeant said they were too aggressive and had to be put down.

But when contacted, the police denied the department's version of events, saying they received three reports on different days about an aggressive dog in the house in Triq il-Fekruna.

They were the first on the scene and entered the garage. The dog came towards them but then turned back. Police said they requested assistance from the animal welfare department, whose officials arrived within 15 minutes.

The police said the animal welfare staff chose to go for the second dog on the balcony because it was without food and water.

The police said they never instructed the animal welfare department personnel to put down the dogs. They said they informed them to apprehend the roaming dog and detain it, pending a court judgement in view of an incident on July 13.

On that date, a woman filed a police report that a dog from the house had attacked her poodle and killed it.

But Dr Spiteri said: "At no point did the police ask me to keep the dogs pending any court action. Their order was specific - to put the dogs down because there were many complaints about these dogs."

Furthermore, Dr Spiteri said the aggressive dog involved in the July 13 incident was not one of the two dogs taken in August, but another belonging to the same owner.

Several attempts had been made to contact Mr Caruana in relation to the July dog attack and the animal welfare department had left five notices at his home because they never found him there.

On the morning of the August incident, police also said they tried to contact the owner for several hours and then spoke to his mother. Following that, they decided to enter his home.

However, the dispute between the department and the police is no consolation to Mr Caruana: "I am just trying to understand why my dogs were put down within a few hours. The dogs were in good health and did not hurt anyone. They should have been kept for some hours, at least, until someone spoke to me."

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.