Society and animal welfare - Italy
They’re roaming in packs, alongside the adriatic shoreline and beaches or doze peacefully in the shadow of the ruins of Pompeij.
The panino from the backpack – actually thought as snack in between sightseeing breaks – is fed to a begging mutt on the Piazza by a tourist.
Much anticipated every morning, in front oft the hotel by their boomer, the dogs savor the morsels and the attention given to them, till after two weeks the time has come to say good bye, and with it, the feeling of remorse because the dusty strayer has to stay behind? Destiny uncertain!
Strays originate from human ownership.
They are exposed of on the roadside, nobody wants to take care of them, because they are unsuitable to serve as hound, or the female repeatedly produces unwanted new offspring. The next generation is born on the streets and will never know a home.
According to a 2006 survey by the Italian Department of Health, 600.000 dogs were regarded as “Randagi” (stray’s), 149.000 of them are living in animal shelters. The Italian Animal Protection Organisation LAV assumes a number of 1 Million dogs without an owner, 600.000 thereof living in animal shelters.
A dog’s life on the street is no “Dolce far Niente” but a very hard struggle for survival. Everyday life is full of danger, anguish and suffering. Strays are perceived as menace to children and livestock and don’t fit into the picture of a region living from tourism.
In the Eyes of people they are not of any value. They are chased away, tormented and hunted. They are shoved off to either private or state owned animal shelters, called “Canile”, if cought by the doghunter, and this is their ultimate destination.
# Source
The panino from the backpack – actually thought as snack in between sightseeing breaks – is fed to a begging mutt on the Piazza by a tourist.
Much anticipated every morning, in front oft the hotel by their boomer, the dogs savor the morsels and the attention given to them, till after two weeks the time has come to say good bye, and with it, the feeling of remorse because the dusty strayer has to stay behind? Destiny uncertain!
Strays originate from human ownership.
They are exposed of on the roadside, nobody wants to take care of them, because they are unsuitable to serve as hound, or the female repeatedly produces unwanted new offspring. The next generation is born on the streets and will never know a home.
According to a 2006 survey by the Italian Department of Health, 600.000 dogs were regarded as “Randagi” (stray’s), 149.000 of them are living in animal shelters. The Italian Animal Protection Organisation LAV assumes a number of 1 Million dogs without an owner, 600.000 thereof living in animal shelters.
A dog’s life on the street is no “Dolce far Niente” but a very hard struggle for survival. Everyday life is full of danger, anguish and suffering. Strays are perceived as menace to children and livestock and don’t fit into the picture of a region living from tourism.
In the Eyes of people they are not of any value. They are chased away, tormented and hunted. They are shoved off to either private or state owned animal shelters, called “Canile”, if cought by the doghunter, and this is their ultimate destination.
# Source
Animal Welfare in Italy
Until the nineties, the Italian government tried to solve the problem of strays by catching them, locking them up and after three days killing them. With law Number 281 from 1991, this gruesome procedure was put to an end, by providing protection for 14 Million dogs and cats (animali di affezione) and prevent the ocurrence (Prevenzione del Randagismo) of strays.
Pet owners are generally obliged by law to register and earmark the animals for identification. All dogs have to be reported to a central register, the “Anagrafa canina”. Mistreatment and abandonment are considered as to be punishable offences.
The law emphasizes the state’s duty of care and its obligation to provide a general population control.
Every community has to enter into a contract with an animal shelter. Strays have to be reported, caught and brought to the animal shelter. They’re bound by contract, to take in the communities strays. After a grace period of 60 days the dogs may be placed with a new keeper or owner, unless the former owner reclaims ownership.
Furthermore, the law prohibits to euthanize the animals after the graze period. What actually could be understood as to be a worthily act, yields the unwanted result of animals being sentenced to life in captivity. Animal shelters are not the sole, appropriate instrument, to reduce the animal population, - much less in a country in which it is uncommon, to adopt an Animal from a shelter.
The allocation of attractive amounts of taxpayer’s money the communities regionally make available to serve the cause, is an Italian speciality. 2 to 7 Euros as daily allowance, is calculated for each and everyone of the dogs, taken to an animal shelter. Not surprising, greed of profit, not animal welfare often are the reason for the foundation of an animal shelter. The rule of thumb for a pretty good business therefore reads as follows: As many dogs as possible, on as little space as feasible, with minimal effort for maintenance.
In law No. 281 from 1991, the surgical sterilization (called castration) is seen as possibility for population control. Explicitly cats are mentioned, there is no specification for dogs. In regional laws, as for instance in the region of Campania, it is a directive, that dogs who are captured and placed in public or private (those who have contracts with communities) animal shelters, have to be castrated by a public veterinarian, likewise dogs which are put up for adoption, before placement. Already the most simple extrapolation clarifies, that a preventive approach could financially be worth while the effort, apart from the positive effects for the animals. The castration of a single female dog, could avoid hundreds of a new generation of strays.
Information: Population control
(Frau Hanning); www.niemandshunde.de
Comment on the Italian Animal Welfare Act, General information
The oldest decree on the protection of animals in Italy still valid today comes from the year 1913 and forbids the cruel treatment of animals in general. Other regulations about their treatment are distributed throughout different laws and decrees of the Italian legal system, a comprehensive national animal welfare act or a regulation at constitutional level regarding this does not exist, however. An amendment to article 9 paragraph 2 of the Italian constitution is being discussed at least, by which the protection of animals shall be treated equally important as the preservation of the sceneries as well as the historical and cultural inheritance.
Status of animals in civil law
In the Italian civil law, animals are purely regarded as objects. The national "Codice Civile" nowhere explicitly says anything about the juridical status of animals, however, it can be concluded from the articles 810, 812 and 923 to 926 that animals are to be treated as objects. In addition, in article 2052 one finds an animal holder liability which can be compared to the legal situation in Switzerland.
Status of animals in criminal law
In the Italian Criminal Code, "Codice Penale", the ability to feel pain and to suffer is awarded to animals. According to article 727, he who treats an animal in a cruel way, torments or tortures it without necessity or uses it for work that demands too much or for which it is not suitable for other reasons, is punished with a fine of up to 5,000 euros. On arranging or participating in events that involve cruelty towards animals, the same punishment may be applied, in addition, on repetition or in other certified cases, sentence rises as well as other sanctions are provided, as for example occupational bans for transportation companies or circus entrepreneurs. Article 638 punishes killing or injuring foreign animals as an independent offence with a fine or imprisonment for up to one year. In addition, the omitted care or supervision about one’s own animals is a punishable offense according to article 672.
Fur animals in Italy
In addition, law No. 189 forbids the processing or trade with dog fur or cat's fur. Fur farms have already been generally forbidden in Italy, but with a transitional term of 10 years. Decree No. 146 from the year 2001 prescribes a minimum surface for the keeping of fur animals on steady ground so big from 2008 that commercial cage keeping should actually not be possible anymore from then on.
Animal testing and freedom of conscience
With law No. 413 from the year 1993, Italy has performed pioneering work in the area of animal testing. It values the freedom of conscience higher than other fundamental rights and allows, for instance, scientists, students, doctors or the staff of the health service, to refuse their co-operation in industrial, medical or university animal experiments for ethical reasons. In addition, the law contains a discrimination ban after which disadvantage may arise to nobody because of his refusal to the participation in animal testing.
Sources: www.tierimrecht.org
Stray animals in Italy
Stray animals are a big problem in Italy. Hence, law No. 281 passed in 1991 is deidcated to the protection of the Italian dogs and cats as well as the avoidance of stray animals. It prescribes a general marking duty and obligatory registration for dogs and declares the maltreatment or the abandonment of domestic animals as well as private trade with dogs and cats to animal testing purposes to be punishable. In addition, the law obliges the state to a general population control. Therefore, stray dogs must be caught and be accommodated at an animal home. If the owner does not get in touch within 60 days, the animal can be given to a new holder. Besides, the delivery to animal experimental laboratories is prohibited. Cats, in contrast, are captured, sterilized and released again. Putting the dogs or cats to sleep is permitted only with severe terminal illnesses or extraordinary danger of the animal.
Law No. 281 was decisively aggravated in 2004 by the complementary law No. 189. It qualifies animal cruelty as a crime which is punished with imprisonments of up to three years and high fines. The abandonment of pets is avenged, for instance, with a term imprisonment from up to one year as well as fines of up to 10,000 euros. He who kills an animal without necessity or out of cruelty, must expect an imprisonment of 18 months as well as fines of up to 15,000 euros. He who maltreats an animal, exposes it to intolerable drudgery, dopes or drugs it, is punished with three to twelve months.
Nevertheless, in practice these laws offer no real protection for the lives of the countless Italian stray animals. At the monstrous, mostly private-run Italian animal shelters, not only dogs and cats, but also large amounts of public money which are not used, howver, for the care of the animals, are collected. Instead of this, they disappear in dark channels, while the dogs and cats miserably die of hunger and illnesses. Because millions of euros are involved here, the battle against the corrupt structures which are hidden behind is very difficult. The information of the general public at home and abroad is an important step here.
Animal Shelters
Particularly in southern Italy, an animal shelter is not what we imagine it to be. The facilities resemble more huge camps, from which there is no escape.
Concealed behind high walls and far away from public scrutiny, tourists and those who are responsible, the dogs remain under miserable conditions, packed together and locked up till they die, because money can be made with strays in Italy.
In the year of 2006, the Italian Department of Health listed 1144 animal shelters. Approximately 2000 Euro are spent on each caught stray annually, – a blatant imbalance to the conditions, the animals have to live under. (1) A multitude of dogs in those camps are diseased.
Two years ago, the Canabinieri del Nucleo Tutela Ambiente, conducted controls in 283 public animal shelters. The catalogue of defects reads like a manual of organized animal abuse.
The confined dogs are lacking water, get too little food and have to suffer mistreatment. Abysmal hygienic conditions induce parasites and diseases like distemper or leishmaniosis. Necessary medical treatment is not provided.
On the one hand, the mortality rate is extremely high, on the other hand, desperately ill animals are denied the delivering injection. The adoption rate is marginal. Often enough, visitors are denied access. Profit is the camp proprietors interest, not the well being of the animals, - after all, each inmate yields money.
PICTURE WITH CAPTION: Packed together and behind bars for their entire life. The camp dogs do not know exercise - in summer they are exposed to the heat without protection and in winter their paws sink into cold and mud. Their look is lost in the crowd, hunger, thirst and disease are causing physical and mental agony.
Until the nineties, the Italian government tried to solve the problem of strays by catching them, locking them up and after three days killing them. With law Number 281 from 1991, this gruesome procedure was put to an end, by providing protection for 14 Million dogs and cats (animali di affezione) and prevent the ocurrence (Prevenzione del Randagismo) of strays.
Pet owners are generally obliged by law to register and earmark the animals for identification. All dogs have to be reported to a central register, the “Anagrafa canina”. Mistreatment and abandonment are considered as to be punishable offences.
The law emphasizes the state’s duty of care and its obligation to provide a general population control.
Every community has to enter into a contract with an animal shelter. Strays have to be reported, caught and brought to the animal shelter. They’re bound by contract, to take in the communities strays. After a grace period of 60 days the dogs may be placed with a new keeper or owner, unless the former owner reclaims ownership.
Furthermore, the law prohibits to euthanize the animals after the graze period. What actually could be understood as to be a worthily act, yields the unwanted result of animals being sentenced to life in captivity. Animal shelters are not the sole, appropriate instrument, to reduce the animal population, - much less in a country in which it is uncommon, to adopt an Animal from a shelter.
The allocation of attractive amounts of taxpayer’s money the communities regionally make available to serve the cause, is an Italian speciality. 2 to 7 Euros as daily allowance, is calculated for each and everyone of the dogs, taken to an animal shelter. Not surprising, greed of profit, not animal welfare often are the reason for the foundation of an animal shelter. The rule of thumb for a pretty good business therefore reads as follows: As many dogs as possible, on as little space as feasible, with minimal effort for maintenance.
In law No. 281 from 1991, the surgical sterilization (called castration) is seen as possibility for population control. Explicitly cats are mentioned, there is no specification for dogs. In regional laws, as for instance in the region of Campania, it is a directive, that dogs who are captured and placed in public or private (those who have contracts with communities) animal shelters, have to be castrated by a public veterinarian, likewise dogs which are put up for adoption, before placement. Already the most simple extrapolation clarifies, that a preventive approach could financially be worth while the effort, apart from the positive effects for the animals. The castration of a single female dog, could avoid hundreds of a new generation of strays.
Information: Population control
(Frau Hanning); www.niemandshunde.de
Comment on the Italian Animal Welfare Act, General information
The oldest decree on the protection of animals in Italy still valid today comes from the year 1913 and forbids the cruel treatment of animals in general. Other regulations about their treatment are distributed throughout different laws and decrees of the Italian legal system, a comprehensive national animal welfare act or a regulation at constitutional level regarding this does not exist, however. An amendment to article 9 paragraph 2 of the Italian constitution is being discussed at least, by which the protection of animals shall be treated equally important as the preservation of the sceneries as well as the historical and cultural inheritance.
Status of animals in civil law
In the Italian civil law, animals are purely regarded as objects. The national "Codice Civile" nowhere explicitly says anything about the juridical status of animals, however, it can be concluded from the articles 810, 812 and 923 to 926 that animals are to be treated as objects. In addition, in article 2052 one finds an animal holder liability which can be compared to the legal situation in Switzerland.
Status of animals in criminal law
In the Italian Criminal Code, "Codice Penale", the ability to feel pain and to suffer is awarded to animals. According to article 727, he who treats an animal in a cruel way, torments or tortures it without necessity or uses it for work that demands too much or for which it is not suitable for other reasons, is punished with a fine of up to 5,000 euros. On arranging or participating in events that involve cruelty towards animals, the same punishment may be applied, in addition, on repetition or in other certified cases, sentence rises as well as other sanctions are provided, as for example occupational bans for transportation companies or circus entrepreneurs. Article 638 punishes killing or injuring foreign animals as an independent offence with a fine or imprisonment for up to one year. In addition, the omitted care or supervision about one’s own animals is a punishable offense according to article 672.
Fur animals in Italy
In addition, law No. 189 forbids the processing or trade with dog fur or cat's fur. Fur farms have already been generally forbidden in Italy, but with a transitional term of 10 years. Decree No. 146 from the year 2001 prescribes a minimum surface for the keeping of fur animals on steady ground so big from 2008 that commercial cage keeping should actually not be possible anymore from then on.
Animal testing and freedom of conscience
With law No. 413 from the year 1993, Italy has performed pioneering work in the area of animal testing. It values the freedom of conscience higher than other fundamental rights and allows, for instance, scientists, students, doctors or the staff of the health service, to refuse their co-operation in industrial, medical or university animal experiments for ethical reasons. In addition, the law contains a discrimination ban after which disadvantage may arise to nobody because of his refusal to the participation in animal testing.
Sources: www.tierimrecht.org
Stray animals in Italy
Stray animals are a big problem in Italy. Hence, law No. 281 passed in 1991 is deidcated to the protection of the Italian dogs and cats as well as the avoidance of stray animals. It prescribes a general marking duty and obligatory registration for dogs and declares the maltreatment or the abandonment of domestic animals as well as private trade with dogs and cats to animal testing purposes to be punishable. In addition, the law obliges the state to a general population control. Therefore, stray dogs must be caught and be accommodated at an animal home. If the owner does not get in touch within 60 days, the animal can be given to a new holder. Besides, the delivery to animal experimental laboratories is prohibited. Cats, in contrast, are captured, sterilized and released again. Putting the dogs or cats to sleep is permitted only with severe terminal illnesses or extraordinary danger of the animal.
Law No. 281 was decisively aggravated in 2004 by the complementary law No. 189. It qualifies animal cruelty as a crime which is punished with imprisonments of up to three years and high fines. The abandonment of pets is avenged, for instance, with a term imprisonment from up to one year as well as fines of up to 10,000 euros. He who kills an animal without necessity or out of cruelty, must expect an imprisonment of 18 months as well as fines of up to 15,000 euros. He who maltreats an animal, exposes it to intolerable drudgery, dopes or drugs it, is punished with three to twelve months.
Nevertheless, in practice these laws offer no real protection for the lives of the countless Italian stray animals. At the monstrous, mostly private-run Italian animal shelters, not only dogs and cats, but also large amounts of public money which are not used, howver, for the care of the animals, are collected. Instead of this, they disappear in dark channels, while the dogs and cats miserably die of hunger and illnesses. Because millions of euros are involved here, the battle against the corrupt structures which are hidden behind is very difficult. The information of the general public at home and abroad is an important step here.
Animal Shelters
Particularly in southern Italy, an animal shelter is not what we imagine it to be. The facilities resemble more huge camps, from which there is no escape.
Concealed behind high walls and far away from public scrutiny, tourists and those who are responsible, the dogs remain under miserable conditions, packed together and locked up till they die, because money can be made with strays in Italy.
In the year of 2006, the Italian Department of Health listed 1144 animal shelters. Approximately 2000 Euro are spent on each caught stray annually, – a blatant imbalance to the conditions, the animals have to live under. (1) A multitude of dogs in those camps are diseased.
Two years ago, the Canabinieri del Nucleo Tutela Ambiente, conducted controls in 283 public animal shelters. The catalogue of defects reads like a manual of organized animal abuse.
The confined dogs are lacking water, get too little food and have to suffer mistreatment. Abysmal hygienic conditions induce parasites and diseases like distemper or leishmaniosis. Necessary medical treatment is not provided.
On the one hand, the mortality rate is extremely high, on the other hand, desperately ill animals are denied the delivering injection. The adoption rate is marginal. Often enough, visitors are denied access. Profit is the camp proprietors interest, not the well being of the animals, - after all, each inmate yields money.
PICTURE WITH CAPTION: Packed together and behind bars for their entire life. The camp dogs do not know exercise - in summer they are exposed to the heat without protection and in winter their paws sink into cold and mud. Their look is lost in the crowd, hunger, thirst and disease are causing physical and mental agony.
2009/2010 - The dogs are kept in horrific prison-like conditions in kennels Acireale in Catania Province, eastern Sicily. 2012 - Despite requests, the situation has not improved. Now it is claimed that the dogs are underfed and starving. Source
Economically, culturally and in regard to the stray problem - Italy is a devided country
The majority of cases with massive violations of the law (official data of Carabinieri show a rate of 13 percent) occur primarily in the south.
Apulien is the region with the highest number of homeless dogs. Allegedly 70671 dogs are roaming the streets of villages and the outskirts of cities. According to “Cicto”, an international animal-protection-coalition based in Switzerland, an amount of at least 40 Million Euro annually is- in the name of the animals- channeled just through Apulia. Unfortunately, this substantial amount is not utilized to serve their well-being, instead Cicto reports, that we have to proceed on the assumption of an organized, criminal structure, in which shelter owners, public veterinarians, mayors and local politicians funnel millions of Euros – under the pretext of a state of stray dog emergency called “Emergenza Randagismo” into their own, private pockets, while in reality, the “stray animal” problem is perpetually fostered.
Corruption and an inefficient control apparatus are the cause of insufficient controls, implemented by public veterinarians, - grievances go unpunished and local politicians pretend lack of knowledge – and at times, the camp-operator, in his dual position, simultaneously fulfills the function of supervision. Thousands upon thousands of innocent animals are used, to let this profitable business become a never-ending story.
The public is not sensitized enough, to perceive the misery of strays, indifference, called “Menefreghismo” prevails. The majority of Italian society doesn’t count a dog as family member but sees the sole function of a dog in their task of herding, watching or hunting. Hardly anyone seems to have any ethical or moral concerns to lock the animals up for a lifetime. No reason for politics, to reflect on the problem, to organize castration campaigns – for a fraction of the costs, - to combat the root of the problem. To accomplish this, a process of rethinking has to take place in public opinion, which – by the way – is financing all that with their own taxpayer money. Not the lifelong placement behind bars, is a solution, but the investment in measures to disrupt the reproduction cycle and support a concept, to find new homes for the animals.
According to LAV there are 135.000 dogs annually being exposed of. The quota increases at hunting season by app. 30 % , when hunters get rid of their hounds and again at holiday season at about 25 %. (1) In southern Italy dogs from private households add up to the number. There’s not just dogs without owners, but also those who have owners while roaming the streets. The majority of them is not castrated because the owners are either careless or not able to afford a castration. Subsequently, again and again, puppies are born to be killed and exposed off on the street. Animal shelters – the good and the bad ones – are filled to capacity. Given, that it is not allowed to kill the animals, the population is growing continuously.
The Health Ministry had seen the need for action and started just in time at the beginning of holiday season 2008, a champagne against abandonment of dogs. The photographer Oliviero Toscani, (he achieved fame through a startling ad campaign for the fashion label Benetton) had an abandoned Jack Russel Terrier pose for a poster with the slogan: “Tu die che razza sei? Umana od Dishumana?” (Which race are you belonging to? Human or inhuman?). Vice social minister Francesca Martini called the campaign a historic moment and emphazised the urgency to go against prevailing italian custom, to treat dogs like toys. The printcamgagn was published in newspapers and in more then 1600 large sized bill boards on highways and the autostrada, foremost in southern regions.
The sand in the well-oiled machinery is grinding in almost every sector of Italian every day life and it has an inconceivable negative synergy-effect, Alexander Stille, Professor for international journalism at Columbia University in New York and expert on Italian politics and culture writes. The multiplication table of bureaucratic- and approval procedures, standing orders, as well as bureaucratic bottlenecks create an extreme high number of leverage, with which government control, delay, bury or promote projects. Each of this steps is an occasion to exercise power, to cronyism and approve and reciprocate the favours.
In other words: Italian strays could be much better off, if their fate wouldn’t be in the stranglehold of a few interest groups.
Bibliography
1) www.lav.it/index.php?id=514
2) www.cicto.org/ausgangslage
The organized cruelty towards animals in Apulia - Animal camps in Italy
Press release from September 23, 2009
Lecce/Zurich - 23.09.2009 In a new mission in Apulia starting from today, the international animal welfare organization "Veterinarians in Action“ examines different dog shelters of the province Lecce in which uncastrated dogs are kept under pathetic hygienic conditions. Beside the veterinary emergency care of ill animals, the „Veterinarians in Action“ offer a free sterilisation program to eleven select communities of the province Lecce for the next years. This offer is a pilot project which gives the communities a chance to finally keep to existing laws for many years.
"Animal shelters are often places collecting dogs without sufficient veterinary basic care, the animals are neither marked with a microchip, nor castrated - two days ago, another 8 puppies were therefore born in a concrete box of the camp. Thus, every single day new dog misery is produced in Apulia" Stefan Weber, leader of the „Veterinarians in Action“, states on site in Kalimera, one of the eleven communities.
Veterinarians in Action“ is member of CICTO.ORG, a European-wide coalition of 50 European animal welfare organizations leading a campaign against the organized mass cruelty towards animals with at least 70,000 dogs in Apulia. CICTO.ORG examines the Mafia methods in dealing with millions of tax money for the arbitrarily produced "stray dog crisis". 70,000 dogs in the animal camps mean costs of 1,000 euros per dog for the state, which makes 70 million euros. Instead of exhaustive castrations and logical registration of private dog keeping as intended by the law, still today communities - as for example Caserano - open new Canile for stray dogs.
Already in November, 2008, CICTO.ORG filed a complaint against a whole series of communities, animal shelters and veterinary officials at the public prosecutor's office in Lecce. "For 18 years there has been the animal welfare law 281, for 18 years the sum of state money used "for dogs" has been constantly rising. The result: The number of dogs without owners has at least grown sixfold, more than 70 million euros seep uncontrollably into the marsh and the situation in the streets constantly worsens" Mrs. Yvonne Risch of the board of directors CICTO summarizes in Liechtenstein. "The animal suffering in private dog dumps, the spreading of zoonosises and the number of the dog bites increases. What do the 60 responsible veterinary surgeons of the ASL Lecce, who have earned at least 4,424,747 euros together in 2008, do against this deplorable state of affairs?"
After television reports in Germany and Switzerland, more and more people express outrage about the dog hell in Apulia. Tourists write to those who are responsible - at present, an ongoing investigation about the deplorable state of affairs in the health service ASL brings new scandals to light every day in Bari. When are the millions of the dog mafia finally put under control?
The health ministry in Rome has decreed urgent measures against the prevailing animal shelter practice and the institutionalized cruelty towards animals through an order in July. Now this order must be carried out. Beside the community Kalimera Tricase, Spongano, Melpignano, Poggiardo, Surano, Castro, Minervina, Uggiano la Chiesa, Guiggianello and Nocilia in the province Lecce have been nominated for the pilot project, the communities have received the project suggestion in August.
INFO Tierärzte im Einsatz („Veterinarians in Action“): S.Weber +41 79 405 68 20 / [email protected]
e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it /www.stie.ch/ www.cicto.org
Stray animals in Italy 2011
Every year in italy 200.000 cats are abandoned.
Every year in italy 150.000 dogs are abandoned.
The 85% of them die in 20 days.
150.000 dogs are put in public or private shelters.
300 is the presumed number of lagers.
2.600.000 is the presumed number of stray cats.
600.000 is the presumed number of stray dogs.
22000 in sardegna
68000 in sicilia
65000 in calabria
70000 in puglia
70000 in campania
60000 in lazio ( roma is in lazio)
23000 in umbria
19000 in abruzzo
14000 in molise
0 Friuli Venezia Giulia
0 PA Trento
0 PA Bolzano
0 Veneto
sardegna, calabria, sicilia , campania, lazio , abruzzo , molise ,puglia , these are regions of south of italy.
Source Ministry of health ; Oipa Italia Onlus
(20011) Italy - Carini in Sicily. A pet store in the mall CARINI POSEIDON forcing puppies and adult dogs spend their lives in glass cases, probably other animals as well. The facilities are warm with fluorescent fixtures. The cage used for the dogs look more like old aquariums, with fluorescent light fixture located on the top and a narrow gap where the only air can get in. -. It is hot and stuffy - no ventilation through the small gap of 3 inches. The dogs are suffering and crying and trying to get out. These shops use animals only to make money and takes no account of how animals are treated or feel. Dead animals are discarded and "cheap" new come from puppy farms - often illegally transported from other countries - a chain where animals are forced to suffer for the sake of profit.
October 12, 2011 - Of the 22 puppies seized last Wednesday in Naples four are already dead. Among puppies, found in a pet store in the center of Naples and in an adjacent garage, it had some suffering from gastro-enteritis and distemper. Diseases that are unforgiving, especially if animals are to be hit a few weeks of life.
The next inspection in the pet store, has led to the discovery of 12 puppies belonging to various breeds including poodles, Rottweiler, bull terrier, chow-chow and possums, all probably from Hungary. Their passports reported an age far greater than the real one. In addition, four passports were found but without matching the dogs. Some Rottweiler was, even, docked tail.
Source
Economically, culturally and in regard to the stray problem - Italy is a devided country
The majority of cases with massive violations of the law (official data of Carabinieri show a rate of 13 percent) occur primarily in the south.
Apulien is the region with the highest number of homeless dogs. Allegedly 70671 dogs are roaming the streets of villages and the outskirts of cities. According to “Cicto”, an international animal-protection-coalition based in Switzerland, an amount of at least 40 Million Euro annually is- in the name of the animals- channeled just through Apulia. Unfortunately, this substantial amount is not utilized to serve their well-being, instead Cicto reports, that we have to proceed on the assumption of an organized, criminal structure, in which shelter owners, public veterinarians, mayors and local politicians funnel millions of Euros – under the pretext of a state of stray dog emergency called “Emergenza Randagismo” into their own, private pockets, while in reality, the “stray animal” problem is perpetually fostered.
Corruption and an inefficient control apparatus are the cause of insufficient controls, implemented by public veterinarians, - grievances go unpunished and local politicians pretend lack of knowledge – and at times, the camp-operator, in his dual position, simultaneously fulfills the function of supervision. Thousands upon thousands of innocent animals are used, to let this profitable business become a never-ending story.
The public is not sensitized enough, to perceive the misery of strays, indifference, called “Menefreghismo” prevails. The majority of Italian society doesn’t count a dog as family member but sees the sole function of a dog in their task of herding, watching or hunting. Hardly anyone seems to have any ethical or moral concerns to lock the animals up for a lifetime. No reason for politics, to reflect on the problem, to organize castration campaigns – for a fraction of the costs, - to combat the root of the problem. To accomplish this, a process of rethinking has to take place in public opinion, which – by the way – is financing all that with their own taxpayer money. Not the lifelong placement behind bars, is a solution, but the investment in measures to disrupt the reproduction cycle and support a concept, to find new homes for the animals.
According to LAV there are 135.000 dogs annually being exposed of. The quota increases at hunting season by app. 30 % , when hunters get rid of their hounds and again at holiday season at about 25 %. (1) In southern Italy dogs from private households add up to the number. There’s not just dogs without owners, but also those who have owners while roaming the streets. The majority of them is not castrated because the owners are either careless or not able to afford a castration. Subsequently, again and again, puppies are born to be killed and exposed off on the street. Animal shelters – the good and the bad ones – are filled to capacity. Given, that it is not allowed to kill the animals, the population is growing continuously.
The Health Ministry had seen the need for action and started just in time at the beginning of holiday season 2008, a champagne against abandonment of dogs. The photographer Oliviero Toscani, (he achieved fame through a startling ad campaign for the fashion label Benetton) had an abandoned Jack Russel Terrier pose for a poster with the slogan: “Tu die che razza sei? Umana od Dishumana?” (Which race are you belonging to? Human or inhuman?). Vice social minister Francesca Martini called the campaign a historic moment and emphazised the urgency to go against prevailing italian custom, to treat dogs like toys. The printcamgagn was published in newspapers and in more then 1600 large sized bill boards on highways and the autostrada, foremost in southern regions.
The sand in the well-oiled machinery is grinding in almost every sector of Italian every day life and it has an inconceivable negative synergy-effect, Alexander Stille, Professor for international journalism at Columbia University in New York and expert on Italian politics and culture writes. The multiplication table of bureaucratic- and approval procedures, standing orders, as well as bureaucratic bottlenecks create an extreme high number of leverage, with which government control, delay, bury or promote projects. Each of this steps is an occasion to exercise power, to cronyism and approve and reciprocate the favours.
In other words: Italian strays could be much better off, if their fate wouldn’t be in the stranglehold of a few interest groups.
Bibliography
1) www.lav.it/index.php?id=514
2) www.cicto.org/ausgangslage
The organized cruelty towards animals in Apulia - Animal camps in Italy
Press release from September 23, 2009
Lecce/Zurich - 23.09.2009 In a new mission in Apulia starting from today, the international animal welfare organization "Veterinarians in Action“ examines different dog shelters of the province Lecce in which uncastrated dogs are kept under pathetic hygienic conditions. Beside the veterinary emergency care of ill animals, the „Veterinarians in Action“ offer a free sterilisation program to eleven select communities of the province Lecce for the next years. This offer is a pilot project which gives the communities a chance to finally keep to existing laws for many years.
"Animal shelters are often places collecting dogs without sufficient veterinary basic care, the animals are neither marked with a microchip, nor castrated - two days ago, another 8 puppies were therefore born in a concrete box of the camp. Thus, every single day new dog misery is produced in Apulia" Stefan Weber, leader of the „Veterinarians in Action“, states on site in Kalimera, one of the eleven communities.
Veterinarians in Action“ is member of CICTO.ORG, a European-wide coalition of 50 European animal welfare organizations leading a campaign against the organized mass cruelty towards animals with at least 70,000 dogs in Apulia. CICTO.ORG examines the Mafia methods in dealing with millions of tax money for the arbitrarily produced "stray dog crisis". 70,000 dogs in the animal camps mean costs of 1,000 euros per dog for the state, which makes 70 million euros. Instead of exhaustive castrations and logical registration of private dog keeping as intended by the law, still today communities - as for example Caserano - open new Canile for stray dogs.
Already in November, 2008, CICTO.ORG filed a complaint against a whole series of communities, animal shelters and veterinary officials at the public prosecutor's office in Lecce. "For 18 years there has been the animal welfare law 281, for 18 years the sum of state money used "for dogs" has been constantly rising. The result: The number of dogs without owners has at least grown sixfold, more than 70 million euros seep uncontrollably into the marsh and the situation in the streets constantly worsens" Mrs. Yvonne Risch of the board of directors CICTO summarizes in Liechtenstein. "The animal suffering in private dog dumps, the spreading of zoonosises and the number of the dog bites increases. What do the 60 responsible veterinary surgeons of the ASL Lecce, who have earned at least 4,424,747 euros together in 2008, do against this deplorable state of affairs?"
After television reports in Germany and Switzerland, more and more people express outrage about the dog hell in Apulia. Tourists write to those who are responsible - at present, an ongoing investigation about the deplorable state of affairs in the health service ASL brings new scandals to light every day in Bari. When are the millions of the dog mafia finally put under control?
The health ministry in Rome has decreed urgent measures against the prevailing animal shelter practice and the institutionalized cruelty towards animals through an order in July. Now this order must be carried out. Beside the community Kalimera Tricase, Spongano, Melpignano, Poggiardo, Surano, Castro, Minervina, Uggiano la Chiesa, Guiggianello and Nocilia in the province Lecce have been nominated for the pilot project, the communities have received the project suggestion in August.
INFO Tierärzte im Einsatz („Veterinarians in Action“): S.Weber +41 79 405 68 20 / [email protected]
e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it /www.stie.ch/ www.cicto.org
Stray animals in Italy 2011
Every year in italy 200.000 cats are abandoned.
Every year in italy 150.000 dogs are abandoned.
The 85% of them die in 20 days.
150.000 dogs are put in public or private shelters.
300 is the presumed number of lagers.
2.600.000 is the presumed number of stray cats.
600.000 is the presumed number of stray dogs.
22000 in sardegna
68000 in sicilia
65000 in calabria
70000 in puglia
70000 in campania
60000 in lazio ( roma is in lazio)
23000 in umbria
19000 in abruzzo
14000 in molise
0 Friuli Venezia Giulia
0 PA Trento
0 PA Bolzano
0 Veneto
sardegna, calabria, sicilia , campania, lazio , abruzzo , molise ,puglia , these are regions of south of italy.
Source Ministry of health ; Oipa Italia Onlus
(20011) Italy - Carini in Sicily. A pet store in the mall CARINI POSEIDON forcing puppies and adult dogs spend their lives in glass cases, probably other animals as well. The facilities are warm with fluorescent fixtures. The cage used for the dogs look more like old aquariums, with fluorescent light fixture located on the top and a narrow gap where the only air can get in. -. It is hot and stuffy - no ventilation through the small gap of 3 inches. The dogs are suffering and crying and trying to get out. These shops use animals only to make money and takes no account of how animals are treated or feel. Dead animals are discarded and "cheap" new come from puppy farms - often illegally transported from other countries - a chain where animals are forced to suffer for the sake of profit.
October 12, 2011 - Of the 22 puppies seized last Wednesday in Naples four are already dead. Among puppies, found in a pet store in the center of Naples and in an adjacent garage, it had some suffering from gastro-enteritis and distemper. Diseases that are unforgiving, especially if animals are to be hit a few weeks of life.
The next inspection in the pet store, has led to the discovery of 12 puppies belonging to various breeds including poodles, Rottweiler, bull terrier, chow-chow and possums, all probably from Hungary. Their passports reported an age far greater than the real one. In addition, four passports were found but without matching the dogs. Some Rottweiler was, even, docked tail.
Source
Italy – Rome, June 26, 2011. With the arrival of the summer season starts the operation "I've seen," to save the 4-legged friends abandoned on highways, produced in collaboration by the Italian defense of animals and the environment (AIDA), and radio group Prontofido Finelco (Radio 105, Virgin and Radio Monte Carlo). The operation will start patrols' July 24 and will last 'till September 4: will' can report abandoned or stray dogs on the highways by sending an sms to 3341051030.
Source: Ansa-IT
Source: Ansa-IT
ITALY - a holiday paradise for humans, perhaps - but not for abandoned animals - Italy abandons about 600,000 dogs EVERY year - especially for family vacations - at best, the dog is left at the dump site when the vacation is over - at worst, the dog (or cat) have starved to death or being hit by car - what kind of mentality is that?