Authorities investigating horses after activists raise welfare concerns

The Animal Welfare Directorate is investigating the alleged neglect of a number of horses, ponies and donkeys at a Mosta field.

The ongoing investigation comes following allegations that the animals are being kept without adequate shelter, with little sign of food and several of the horses appearing underweight.

This comes after animal activist Dr Romina Frendo visited the site and reported it to the police. Speaking to MaltaToday, Frendo said several of the animals had visibly protruding ribs, and that a foal collapsed in front of her while she was there.

"He just slumped to the floor before my eyes," she said. She filmed the scene and posted it on Facebook, where it spread quickly, and said she informed the Director of Animal Welfare, Dennis Sciberras, once the footage was online.

A request for the case to be investigated by animal welfare authorities had also been made by Parliamentary Secretary Alicia Bugeja Said.

A spokesperson for Parliamentary Secretary for Animal Welfare Alicia Bugeja Said confirmed that an investigation began immediately after the report was filed. Animal Welfare Directorate officers were sent to the site to check on the animals' well-being, and the department is working to ensure their welfare is as it should be.

The investigation will extend beyond the immediate report, with legal steps depending on the outcome of the reports compiled from site visits.

MaltaToday is also informed the Commissioner for Animal Welfare Elliot Magro is looking into the case and will decide on any future recommendations.

According to sources who spoke to MaltaToday, a team, including vets, went on-site with the director as part of the first stage of the investigation. They said that once the findings are confirmed, the department will say whether the horses are to remain on site if being kept properly, or be relocated if not, and will explain its reasoning either way.

“Legal action cannot be taken until the state of the animals' welfare has been formally established,” they said.

The Animal Welfare Act places any general duty of care on anyone keeping an animal.

The law states "any person who keeps any animal or who agrees to look after an animal shall be responsible for its health and welfare," and that such a person "shall take such steps as are reasonable in all the circumstances to ensure that the needs of an animal for which he is responsible... shall be met to the extent required by good practice and in pursuance to the good health and well-being of the animal."

Breaches of the Act can lead to enforcement action, including inspection and, where warranted, confiscation of the animals concerned.

First report made in 2025

Frendo said she had reported the field’s owner over suspected cruelty in 2025, after which the then-Director of Animal Welfare Joseph John Vella who was replaced by Dennis Sciberras, had told her the matter would be referred to the Veterinary Regulation Directorate and the Animal Welfare Directorate.

She said no fine or other outcome followed, and that she only realised it was the same property when police told her, this time, that her report had been filed alongside separate ones from the Food Safety and Security Authority (FSSA) and the Environment and Resources Authority (ERA).

The activist has also questioned authorities’ lack of action despite the 2025 report. She questioned why officers who visited the field over the past year, including in response to her own cruelty report, did not act on what they saw.

She has written to the relevant authorities requesting an investigation into every report filed regarding the property and the reasons no action was taken.

Concerns raised over fireworks

Concerns have also been raised over the horses’ welfare during Santa Marija week, with festa celebrations happening at the locality in the coming weeks.

The field lies next to another site used for the discharge of fireworks, which the activist said poses a direct danger to the horses. She described animals with nowhere to shelter from the noise and blasts during discharges, on top of the lack of shade, which already exposes them to the summer heat.

The activist said a representative of the Malta Pyrotechnic Association had told her the owner had been asked to move the horses or keep them enclosed because of fireworks discharged from a neighbouring field and had instead let them loose.

The representative said an understanding to that effect had been reached between the two sides after a similar dispute involving the same field last year.

In March 2025, the Commissioner for Animal Welfare Alison Bezzina, submitted a set of 24 recommendations to the Minister for Animal Rights and the Parliamentary Secretary for Animal Rights.

Among them, recommendation 23, titled "Protecting Animals from Fireworks Noise," warned current fireworks legislation in Malta sets limits on size and regulates timing and location near residential areas, but focuses only on human safety, leaving animals with no specific legal protection from the distress caused by fireworks noise.

The recommendation cited research showing that loud noise can raise animals' heart rates and stress hormone levels and cause long-term stress and behavioural problems.

As an immediate step, the commissioner recommended that fireworks be barred from areas where animals are most at risk, including farms with livestock and any other location where animals cannot easily be relocated to a quieter area. She also proposed incentives for silent fireworks as an alternative.