Two pet cats, both with new kittens, were poisoned within a week of each other in Baħrija, their owner says.

Charmaine Vella, the cats’ owner, told Times of Malta the two cats were killed last Wednesday and Sunday.

“They started drooling and shaking uncontrollably and eventually they stopped breathing,” she said, noting that these were usually signs of poisoning. “When they go outside, I have no control over where they go. I think someone is annoyed about it, but it doesn’t justify killing a cat.”

Ms Vella added that another of her cats had been killed in similar fashion around a year ago. She has not yet filed a report with the police.

The incident comes amid outrage on social media over reports that a man had beaten a kitten to death outside a popular seaside restaurant on Sunday afternoon. The establishment’s owners have filed a police report and have denied any blame over the incident, as had been alleged on social media.

It has not been a happy few weeks for animal lovers in Malta, with three protected storks being shot down by poachers last week and a karozzin horse collapsing and dying in the street in Floriana a few days earlier.

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