A father of six on a minimum wage was yesterday given the harshest punishment ever meted out for animal cruelty after he put a boxer in a garbage bag and dumped it in a skip, in a case a police inspector described as “atrocious”.
The government-employed watchman, Joseph Galea, 58, from Vittoriosa, stood in the dock and admitted to animal cruelty and keeping dogs without a licence.
Magistrate Anthony Vella fined him €20,000 and jailed him for a year. The maximum he stood to receive by law was a €30,000 fine and a one-year prison term.
Mr Galea has been convicted once before for animal cruelty although his defence lawyer yesterday argued that by law this should not be taken into consideration as it happened in 1988.
In another recent case of cruelty to animals, 44-year-old farmer Alfred Vella, of Birżebbuġa, was jailed for three months and fined €10,000 after he shot a dog – later named Star – in the head and buried her alive in a shallow grave. The dog died about two weeks later just after a march against animal cruelty sparked off by her story.
Police Inspector Fabian Fleri yesterday told the court that Kimba, the four-year-old boxer renamed Gaia after she was found, spent 12 hours in a skip in Kalkara last Friday after Mr Galea walked for about an hour from his house carrying the dog in a black garbage bag.
Mr Galea told the police that he decided to get rid of the dog after she fell ill.
When she “looked almost dead” he took her to a skip to dispose of her, the inspector said.
Gaia was found alive but nearly suffocated in the garbage bag on Friday morning by a jogger who heard noises coming from the skip. She died in the evening despite efforts by the staff at San Franġisk Animal Hospital, at Ta’ Qali, to revive her.
“This is an atrocious crime which merits an effective jail term,” Inspector Fabian Fleri told thecourt also recommendingtheconfiscationofMrGalea’s two other dogs which, however, looked to be in a healthy state.
The first time Mr Galea was arraigned over animal cruelty was in 1988 when he was fined the equivalent of nearly €60 for repeatedly kicking his dog.
Defence lawyer Noel Camilleri told the court that by law his client was considered a first-time offender and that the magistrate should not let emotions get in the way.
His client should not be jailed considering the fact that he was a father of six on a minimum wage, the lawyer added.
After judgment was handed down, Mr Galea moved to the front of the court room to sign an immediate appeal and said: “I do not even have enough money to look after my children.”
Despite signing the appeal, he was remanded in custody until his dogs are examined.
Animal welfare officers confirmed his one-year jail term and €20,000 fine was the stiffest sentence yet handed down for animal cruelty.
In a reaction immediately after the judgment was delivered, Janice Chetcuti, an animal welfare officer, expressed satisfaction that the magistrate had appreciated the suffering Gaia had gone through.
In another statement of condemnation, the NGO Moviment Graffiti lauded the police and the animal welfare officers for the work carried out in bringing Mr Galea to justice.