The police are still investigating the suspected poisoning of a dog which was found dead last July in the compound of the Civil Protection Department, Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici said in Parliament.

He was replying to questions by Nationalist MP David Agius, who asked what had become of the investigation into the death of Sweetie, the bitch which, he said, had been poisoned and was found dead in the Dog Section of the Civil Protection Department last July 23.

Mr Agius asked who were the persons who were investigated and why the three dog handlers who had urged the intervention of the police, had been transferred.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici said the dog handlers were transferred to other sections within the department after they told the Director of Civil Protection that they wished to work elsewhere.

The Department had received a preliminary report from the vet who carried out the autopsy on the bitch. As a result, it was suspected that the bitch was killed. The police were called in last September and the investigation is still under way.

The minister said in reply to another question that since 2007, eight persons were handed suspended jail terms for animal cruelty. There was one conviction in 2009, three in 2010 and four this year.