Authorities are on site and investigating a Pieta’ home after a dog confiscated in a raid last year was returned to its allegedly abusive owner against protocol.

Police officers as well as officers from the Animal Welfare Directorate are on site outside the home in Pieta’, a home that had previously been raided and found to not have suitable conditions for animals.

In the November, 2021 raid, around 20 dogs, many of them of the Pomeranian breed, had been confiscated and placed into authorities’ care.

However, Animal Rights Minister Anton Refalo allegedly handpicked one of the dogs – named Kikka – and gifted it to a constituent, who gave it to someone else, before it was eventually lost by an elderly woman in Qala, who reported it missing.

Refalo has categorically denied these allegations.

Kikka was found, and delivered to the Gozo offices of Animal Welfare, where analysis of its microchip found it was registered to the man accused of abusing dogs in Pieta’ – who Kikka was then returned to, even though the dog had been confiscated from him in the first place.

The case, which animal activist Maxine Borg flagged over the weekend, had led to the call for a spontaneous protest to be held today at 2pm outside the Pieta’ residence. However, following today’s raid, the protest has been called off, with Borg praising the fact that action was taken in Kikka’s regard.