Probation for ‘savage’ boy who drowned Labrador

A 16-year-old boy with a psychiatric problem and the start of a cocaine habit was yesterday placed on probation for three years for drowning a dog after a court heard that even his parents described him as a “savage”.

The boy, who is not being named because he is a minor, admitted to drowning Buddy, a Labrador, on July 28 in an area known as Tal-Ponta, about 300 metres away from the water polo pitch just behind Fort St Lucian in Marsaxlokk.

It emerged in court that the boy was meant to be on medication to help him manage his anger but refused to take the pills.

Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera had put off the case for judgment so that a pre-sentencing report could be drawn up. In the report, the boy’s parents are quoted by probation officer Miriam Sevasta as having described their son as “a savage” unable to show any respect.

He tested positive to cocaine and his parents took him to the Caritas drug rehabilitation centre to get him off the drug, Ms Sevasta said. She recommended that the boy be given a suspended jail term and also be made to pay the owner of the dog compensation for the loss. In fact he paid the owner €350.

Magistrate Scerri Herrera said she was treating the boy as a first-time offender because he had a clean police record.

Before the judgment, lawyer Joe Brincat, appearing for the dog’s owner, pointed out that, according to the animal cruelty law, the magistrate could not give a suspended jail term and suggested probation instead.

The court in fact placed the boy under probation for three years and warned him about the consequences of not obeying the probation orders. This judgment comes three days after the stiffest sentence yet for animal cruelty was handed down. On Monday, 58-year-old Joseph Galea, of Vittoriosa was fined €20,000 and given a nine-month jail term for tying his boxer dog, Kimba, in a black garbage bag and leaving it to die in a skip. He has appealed the judgment.