Man fined €2,000 over unregistered leopard

A man from Zebbug has been fined €2,000 after being found guilty of having failed to register his pet leopard with the authorities

File photo
File photo

A 33-year-old man from Zebbug has been fined €2,000 after being found guilty of having failed to register his pet leopard with the authorities. 

This emerged from a judgement handed down this morning by Magistrate Gabriella Vella against Eric Attard, who had been charged with keeping an unregistered dangerous animal, failing to house it in a zoological establishment and that the animal’s enclosure had not been inspected or approved by the authorities. 

Attard had also been charged with recidivism, having been convicted of raising unregistered cougar cubs in 2019, for which he had been conditionally discharged.

Attard had pleaded guilty to the charges, bar that of recidivism, of which he was acquitted due to lack of evidence. The prosecution and the Director of Veterinary Services had withdrawn their request for the seizure of the leopard, after informing the court that the man had registered it with the authorities during the course of the proceedings against him.

Finding the man guilty upon his own admission and in view of the early guilty plea, the court imposed a fine of €2,000, to be paid in monthly instalments within 10 months.

Lawyer Veronique Dalli appeared for Attard.