The authorities have since June been investigating a video which shows a horse being beaten in Mosta.
According to the international NGO People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta), the “disturbing” video shows a man angrily whipping a terrified horse.
“Tethered in a grimy undersized stall,” the horse is beaten with what appears to be a dressage whip, Peta said on its website. The NGO urged viewers to contact the authorities, calling on them to take this case seriously and remove the horse from the abuser’s custody.
When contacted, Animal Rights Commissioner Emanuel Buhagiar said he had received hundreds of emails since the video, which was reportedly filmed in Mosta, went viral on Friday.
He was informing the senders that animal welfare officers had gone on site in June and the police were investigating the case.
The Welfare Department took cases of animal abuse very seriously, Mr Buhagiar said. In one case starting more than four years ago, the department appealed the sentence of a man who had been caught with caged birds and rabbits in unhygienic conditions and without water. He was fined €300 earlier this year. Mr Buhagiar insisted that education and awareness were part of the solution against animal cruelty.
The horse video was the third case of animal cruelty that caught the attention of the media in just one week.
On November 29 a dog was found abandoned and in critical condition, having been left for dead in a flour sack. The police tracked down the owner, who claimed that it had run away a year earlier.
Three days later Times of Malta reported the dumping of two boa constrictors which had been smashed in the head. One had suffocated on its own blood and the other survived, with lacerations in its mouth and burn marks all over its body.
“Since November, Malta has even harsher penalties for those caught maltreating animals. On first conviction, the accused is liable to a fine of up to €55,000, to imprisonment for not more than three years, or both. If they are caught again, the penalty goes up to a maximum of €80,000. These are among the harshest in the EU,” Mr Buhagiar said.