Cat burglar? Teenager charged with ‘stealing’ lost cat on the street
Shadow Minister for Animal Rights Janice Chetcuti has described a bizarre case she helped defend when courts were largely closed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chetcuti told Lovin Malta that her client was a young girl who was feeding a colony of stray cats in southern Malta on her way home from school. One day, one of these cats followed the girl home and waited outside her apartment door.
The girl begged her father to allow her to keep the cat, and the father told her that she could do so as long as a veterinarian could confirm that the cat was healthy and did not belong to anyone.
She took the cat to the vet, who treated it for fleas and worms and confirmed that it was not microchipped. After following her father’s instructions, the girl was allowed to keep the cat.
Months later, a neighbor discovered the cat basking in the sun on the girl’s balcony and informed her that the cat was hers.
However, the girl refused to give her the cat, saying that she had been feeding it on the street for months and had never seen a message saying that it was lost or for sale.
The neighbor reported her to the police, who accused her of simple theft and vigilantism. The girl hired Chetcuti as her lawyer.
Chetcuti said it was “almost comical” that they had to regularly attend court sessions on the case, even though courts were largely closed during the COVID-19 lockdown.
A judge acquitted the girl of the charge of simple theft, but found her guilty of “ragion fattasi” after a DNA test showed that the cat most likely actually belonged to the neighbor and ordered her to hand the cat over.
However, Chetcuti appealed and a judge ruled in her client’s favor, arguing that the neighbor had neither chipped the cat nor searched for it when it went missing. The girl won the case and got the cat back.
“If we really love cats, we should, no matter what the law says, microchip them so that if – God forbid – they ever get lost, we can find them,” Chetcuti said. “We should take care of them and raise them with education and love.”
She called on animal welfare authorities to focus on ensuring pets are in responsible hands and to change the law to allow people to bring their furry friends into facilities.
“That’s what we need to focus on, not on banning non-purebred bully breeds,” she said.
“Animals need a serious authority led by people who can think sensibly and love animals. Otherwise we will never make progress, but will fall back 100 years, as I see right now.”
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