Animal Rights Minister Anton Refalo has categorically denied gifting a dog confiscated by the Animal Welfare Department following revelations that the animal was handed back to its allegedly abusive owner. 

A spokesperson insisted that the dog, which was of the Pomeranian breed, was among three of the 21 dogs seized that were take in for fostering. One of the people who fostered the dog in question is a constituent of Refalo. 

That means that no transfer of ownership was registered on any of the dogs placed in fostering. However, it fails to fully explain why the dog was immediately returned to its original owner. 

The Animal Welfare Directorate is currently taking steps to re-confiscate the dog from its owner, who is facing charges over animal neglect.

The case, which Maxine Borg flagged over the weekend, goes back to November 2021, when Animal Welfare officers confiscated around 20 dogs, many of which were of the Pomeranian breed, from a residence in Pieta’ after an animal welfare inspection found them not to be living in good conditions.

Borg claimed that shortly after the raid, Refalo handpicked one of these dogs, a brown Pomeranian called Kikka, and handed it to a Gozitan family.

In a Facebook photo of the dog, a family relative tagged the minister’s wife Lina Refalo. This family eventually gave the dog to an elderly woman in Qala who reported it missing last weekend.

It turned out that a man had found Kikka and delivered her straight 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’.

However, Borg said that the Gozitan Animal Welfare staff didn’t even know that Maltese Animal Welfare officials had confiscated a bunch of dogs from this man less than a year ago and promptly handed Kikka back to him.

In a since-deleted comment under a Facebook post, a member of the original Gozitan family said that Refalo “assisted” them to adopt Kikka but that the fault lies in the law, not in the minister.  

Protocol states that following a raid, all confiscated animals must be immediately taken to the animal hospital to have their microchips and registration checked. From that point on, they are officially in the custody of Animal Welfare until the court case against the owner is over and his guilt or lack thereof is established.

Until the court case is over, Animal Welfare cannot put these animals up for adoption, although they are allowed to put them up for fostering. 

What do you think of the case?