Star, the dog whose horrific tale of torture made international headlines, died from an acute inflammation of the pancreas yesterday, barely 24 hours after hundreds rallied in a protest against animal cruelty sparked by her story.

The female cross-breed had been recovering so well that it was decided she could leave the Ta’ Qali animal welfare centre to spend some time with her new owners.

The Rural Affairs Ministry issued a statement to say that Star had started to be integrated with her new owners to help alleviate the stress she had endured.

However, she had not been there long when on Saturday she started throwing up and was back under the 24-hour care of the vets. Her only hope was an operation – she came round and on Sunday was stable, but her condition deteriorated yesterday and she died at 3 p.m.

“I’m devastated,” were the only words vet Trevor Zammit could utter in a broken voice when contacted.

When The Sunday Times had met Star a week ago she never once wagged her tail during the visit, except when Dr Zammit showed up – which was ironic seeing that so many animals detest their vets – and even then it was a half-wag.

Dr Zammit, who had painstakingly removed the 40 shotgun pellets from Star’s head and was entrusted with her care, had only last week said the dog was “improving in leaps and bounds considering the injuries she had”. Yesterday Dr Zammit and his team were speechless.

Believed to be about four or five years old, Star was found near Għar Ħasan by Animal Welfare Department officers on May 19, whimpering after she managed to poke her nose through the soil.

She had been shot once at point blank range but the torture had not stopped there – her muzzle and front and hind paws were bound and, still alive, she was buried in a shallow grave, which was covered with cardboard and a trunk on top for good measure. Police are still investigating the case.

Animal welfare coordinator Janice Chetcuti felt cheated by the death of Star after she had been doing so well, even though she felt she could never explain the pain in the dog’s eyes.

Ms Chetcuti urged society to ensure the energy and enthusiasm witnessed during Sunday’s protest did not die with Star.

“Star represented something powerful and a ray of hope for us all. Let us tap into the energy she sparked within us to continue campaigning against animal cruelty and keep that fervour alive,” she said.

The fury sparked by this gut-wrenching story had spread beyond Malta’s shores and Star’s incredible tale of survival was featured in newspapers and television programmes across Europe and North America.

Messages of shock at the sad news yesterday inundated times­ofmalta.com and the Facebook page that had been created especially for Star: The Dog Who Lived. A fresh Facebook page was soon after created called In Loving Memory of Star RIP – this immediately had more than 4,000 members.

The dog, a possible mix between a collie and a sheep dog, had fast become a symbol against animal cruelty. More than 2,600 people signed an online petition calling for justice and 53,000 joined the Facebook page to show support towards the dog that captured the nation’s heart.

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.