Zoophile guards Oipa (International Organization for the Protection of Animals) in cooperation with ASL confiscated three severely malnourished dogswithout vaccination records and detained in dilapidated pens on the premises Acqui Terme, in the province of Alessandria. He was also detained during the same operation Rabbit.
The owner of the land was reported to be a hunter mistreatment while the dogs were entrusted to the care of the Acqui Terme municipal kennel.
“We found five dogs in a property used as a tool shed,” he explains Cristina Destro, coordinator of the Zoophile Guard Unit of Oipo Alessandria and its province – lived in individual enclosures covered in excrement and without insulated pens. Three of them were visibly underweight and one also suffered from an apparent hernia, as confirmed by an ASL vet who responded to the scene. We therefore seized them and left instructions to improve the detention of the other two.’
Rabbits and chickens have also been found in the land subject to Operation Oipa in extreme conditions, as Cristina Destro explains: «The rabbits, covered in excrement, without food and water, were locked in cages, several rabbits in a cage. We also left them recipes, we only confiscated one. We will come back to check that they are being followed. If this is not the case, we will also consider confiscating them.”
The case of Acqui Terme recalls that of San Vincenzo in the province of Livorno. Even then, two dogs (one of which was actually a bloodhound) were found locked in cages and fed nothing but stale bread. All this in extremely hygienic conditions.
Unfortunately, a very widespread condition in the hunting world where dogs are no longer considered suitable for hunting barely kept alive without the slightest concern for their psychophysical health.
The crime of animal abandonment is punishable by Article 727 of the Criminal Code and a fine from 1,000 to 10,000 eurosor with arrest for up to one year: “Whoever keeps animals in conditions incompatible with their nature and causing serious suffering is subject to the same punishment”.
However, Articles 544 bis and ter punish animal abuse: “Whoever cruelly or needlessly causes the death of an animal shall be punished by imprisonment for four months to two years” and “Whoever cruelly or needlessly causes injury to an animal or exposes it to cruelty or behavior or toil or work that is intolerable due to its ethological characteristics, shall punish with imprisonment from three months to eighteen months or a monetary penalty from 5,000 to 30,000 euros“. The penalty for mistreatment is increased by half if the behavior results in the death of the animal.