Dog killer's jail term confirmed

Joseph Galea's nine-month jail term was confirmed by an Appeals Court, which however reduced his €20,000 fine to €4,000.

In October 2011 Galea had admitted to killing Gaia, his pet boxer dog, by suffocating it with a plastic bag and leaving it in a Kalkara skip. He claimed that the dog was sick and he had to walk from Birgu to Kalkara until he found a skip.

A jogger had alerted the authorities after hearing noises inside a skip, but efforts by the San Franġisk Animal Hospital staff failed to save the dog's life.