Another month, another case of attempted bestiality in Malta.

A Gozitan farmer has spoken to ONE News about how he caught a Nigerian man with his pants down assaulting and chasing his mare at his Xewkija farm last Wednesday.

“We saw him… he pulled his pants down to his knees and chased the mare, hitting her and trying to do what a horse would do,” the farmer said.

The man escaped but the farmer spotted him walking around his farm the next day.

He explained that he tried to speak to the man calmly so as to try and stop him doing a runner. Meanwhile, he told his wife and children to “do what they must”, a hint to call the police.

The man eventually escaped but this time he only got as far as the LIDL supermarket in Rabat before police arrested him.

In a statement today, the police confirmed that a 22-year-old Nigerian man had been charged in the Gozitan courts with animal abuse and damaging a person’s property. He couldn’t have been charged with bestiality because it isn’t technically illegal in Malta.

“We’re so disappointed that he beat our mare; we’d have preferred it if he had attacked us,” the farmer told ONE. “Those animals are part of our family and we love them so much; they’re the light in our eyes.”

A similar case involving sheep in St Julian’s last month prompted calls for the criminalisation of bestiality and Animal Rights Minister Anton Refalo called for the introduction of harsher bestiality laws.

Lawyer Etienne Savona has warned that this legal lacuna means Malta risks becoming a global hotspot for tourists who want to have sex with animals.

Should Malta criminalise bestiality? Let us know in the comment section