Witnesses saw man kill pitbull during dog attack
A pitbull owner stabbed one of his dogs to death as they attacked him outside his home in Msida, eyewitnesses have confirmed.
They said André Galea used a knife to stab and kill one of the pit bulls after they began to maul him.
Neighbours rushed to their windows and balconies at around 1.30am on Monday after hearing screams and cries outside of Galea’s townhouse in Antonio Sciortino Street.
“The dogs were biting him to pieces,” said one witness.
During the attack, witnesses said Galea pulled out a knife and stabbed the larger of the two dogs, a white pit bull, which they said was holding on to Galea with its teeth and attacking his arms, face and hands. The fate of the dog was first reported by MaltaToday.
Once animal welfare officers showed up, roughly an hour after neighbours reported the incident to the authorities, they wrapped the dead dog up and placed it in the back of their car, witnesses said.
“I could hear the police saying ‘poor thing, poor thing’ (jaħasra, jaħasra),” one witness said.
“It was pronounced dead before being taken away,” another said.
As for Galea’s other attacker, a smaller brown dog, sources said that animal welfare officers took it into custody that same morning.
“The other dog was, as far as I know, anaesthetised and taken away,” one witness said, also noting that Galea owns more than one brown dog.
Questions sent to the Animal Welfare Department on Monday have not yet been answered.
Speaking to Times of Malta, sources familiar with the area said that this incident came as no surprise as they have witnessed many disturbances in the past.
In fact, Galea’s pit bulls had killed his 95-year-old grandmother in September 2020. He stands charged with her involuntary homicide.
“We’ve had issues with him for years,” a source said adding that these ranged from phone calls to police calls as 4am shouting matches woke nearby residents while strangers walked in and out of Galea’s residence at all hours of the day.
Sources also claimed that they have seen Galea drinking during the early hours of the day on his the steps of his property.
Multiple sources said they heard barking “all the time” and have voiced concerns over the well-being of the animals being kept at the property.
“I’m not comfortable and my mum is terrified,” one source said.
“At night, I don’t want to be around that house because this is the second time something like this has happened.”
On Tuesday evening, animal welfare officers collected eight dogs from Galea’s property.
Sources said that the dogs had not been fed since the attack while Animal Welfare Commissioner Alison Bezzina said that officials could not act earlier because they lacked permission to enter the property.
The dogs were living in “inadequate conditions”, Animal Welfare Parliamentary Secretary Alicia Bugeja Said noted in a Facebook post on Tuesday evening.
She expressed her support for the authorities, saying they “will be doing everything possible to achieve justice”.
“We’ve had issues with him for years