Watch: “My Animals Were My Family” – BirdPark Owner Mourns Losses After Explosion

The owner of Bird Park in Naxxar has described scenes of heartbreak and devastation after the massive explosion at a pyrotechnics facility in Salini killed several animals and caused extensive damage to the park. “I feel like I’ve lost my own children,” owner Kevin Mallia said as he recounted the aftermath. Among the casualties was Ricky, a beloved parrot who had lived at the park for nearly 58 years.”My parrot Ricky used to speak to me as you would. I found him dead. He was going to turn 58 years old,” Mallia said. Every morning, Mallia would make his rounds, greeting the animals before anyone else. “The first thing I would do is say hi to all my animals before saying hi to anyone else. The first hi my animals would say would be to me. I love them as if they’re my own children.” Instead, following the explosion, he was met with a nightmare. “I found so many of my animals dead. I couldn’t believe it. One after the other. I haven’t even picked all of them up,” he said. According to Mallia, the first blast triggered panic among the park’s birds. Six flamingos immediately took flight in terror. “One of them didn’t go high up enough and slammed into the glass and died. The other five probably left,” he continued. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Lovin Malta (@lovinmalta) The second explosion was even more devastating. “It was so big that it felt as though someone shot you directly. I turned and started seeing dead animals, either animals who were blasted, others died from heart attacks.” The shockwave also triggered what Mallia described as a chain reaction among nesting birds. Frightened chicks jumped from their nests in panic and did not survive.”We lost lots of babies in the nests. They jumped out because they were scared,” he added. One of the losses that hit him hardest was a baby crane. “We had been waiting 15 years to have babies from the crane. We finally got one, and it died. Blood literally came out of the baby crane’s ears.” “We also have a lot of structural damages to the premises, but these are secondary to me because my animals are everything to me. We can’t get them back,” the owner said, adding that so many died they couldn’t keep count.” “If these animals had died of natural causes, it would be more acceptable to me,” he continued. “They are my children. I live for them and they live with me,” Mallia said. Mallia also raised questions about activity he noticed the evening before the explosion. At around 9:30pm on Monday, he said he heard what sounded like fireworks coming from the area of the pyrotechnics facility. The noise was significant enough to agitate the park’s flamingos. He suspects the activity may have been connected to the explosion that occurred the following morning. However, when he spoke to police after the incident, officers told him that no fireworks had been set off at the factory the previous evening. The same information was communicated to the Lovin Malta journalist on site. Meanwhile, investigations into the cause of the explosion remain ongoing. For Mallia, however, the focus remains on the animals he lost. •