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Having Sex With Animals Will Finally Be Illegal In Malta And Will Land Offenders In Prison

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Bestiality is set to become a crime punishable by up to three years in prison Justice Minister Edward Zammit Lewis told Parliament.

The change follows multiple calls over the years, by both the Opposition and animal rights activists, for Malta to update its laws in order to outlaw the practice. 

Zammit Lewis said that the country’s laws would be changed to include a provision stating that nobody can subject an animal to any activity that isn’t in its nature, which includes sexual acts. 

Anyone found guilty of bestiality will be liable to a maximum prison sentence of three years and a fine of between €2,000 and €6,000. 

Opposition MP Mario Galea has on a number of occasions called on the government to outlaw bestiality, arguing in Parliament in May that the act should carry a prison term and a €6,000. 

The issue hit the headlines last year after a St Julian’s farmer caught a man having sex with his flock of sheep.

The unusual story started a national discussion about the matter bringing to the fore the fact that the act was not outright banned in Malta.

Last year a lawyer who had penned a thesis proposing a legal framework for criminalising the practice, told Lovin Malta that Malta risked becoming a hotspot for bestiality tourism if it didn’t update its laws. 

“By not expressly banning bestiality you are encouraging animal sex tourism since all a zoophile or a bestialist needs to do when engaging in intercourse with an animal is avoid falling foul of the animal cruelty provision in our municipal legislation, namely Article 8(2) of the Animal Welfare Act,” he had said.

Lovin Malta had also asked Animal Rights Minister Anton Refalo why bestiality was not a crime in Malta. Refalo had said that as far as he was aware the act was illegal, but nonetheless called the country to have bestiality laws ‘adequate for its time’. 

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Yannick joined Lovin Malta in March 2021 having started out in journalism in 2016. He is passionate about politics and the way our society is governed, and anything to do with numbers and graphs. He likes dogs more than he does people.

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