Mill every year, thousands of kilometres to travel the country from one end to the other, with one goal: to seek a new home and a new family to the many — too many! — cats and dogs who are still abandoned and left to wander in the streets. Especially in the regions of the South, where the stray dogs still achieves peak unacceptable. They call them “runners”, but in the archipelago of the animal are considered to be the missionaries. Because of a mission, and at times impossible, it is. And that is what they did Elizabeth Barbieri and Federico Tonin that on the night of Saturday, have lost their lives in an accident on the A14 motorway, during the transport of dogs and cats from the Puglia region of Lombardy, in this case on behalf of the Enpa. The clamping arms are not volunteers in the strict sense of the term, because the transport must be organized with professionalism and with the suitable means, such as vans specially equipped with cages for fixed and adequate ventilation systems, and this has costs. But the dedication that many of them put us often have another job and take holidays while helping associations — means that they are allies of world wildlife.
Italy at two speeds
there Are many associations that seek to encourage by every means the relocation of the animals that end up in shelters of the South, and that there are likely to spend the whole of existence. Because in that part of the Country is less widespread culture of adoption and because they are too high are the numbers of the phenomenon. Also in this emerges the image of an Italy that is a two-speed. In the north, the system of accalappiamenti, housing in shelters and loans are foundlings, it works, and also rather good. To the south, however, the reality is dramatic. Of 98.586 the dogs in the kennels Italian, according to the latest report Lav on the street, which is the database updated in this matter, 67.1% is located in the south. But this is only a part of the stray in the territory, that often are left wandering “Unfortunately, the municipal authorities do not take their responsibility — says Michela Vittoria Brambilla, president of the parliamentary intergroup for animal rights, and the president of the Leidaa, one of the associations active on the front of adoptions from one end to the other of the peninsula. The law requires the auditors to provide for the capture and keeping of stray, but many people prefer not to commit resources in this field.”
The funds for the Regions
In 2020 the government has allocated one billion euros in the “fund for the protection of the health and the fight against the abandonment of pets”, sum is divided among the regions according to criteria that take into account both the resident population and the number of animals in shelters. These resources must be spent predominantly for the birth control, that is, for the sterilization of animals, which is destined for the law, at least 60% of the available money. The rest have to think about the Common. The latest data reported by the Regions and related to last year speak of 76.192 inputs in the kennels and health 42.665 in the kennels shelter. There are, however, the figures of Calabria and Sicily, that have not submitted the numbers to the government. “Although in recent years, the control of stray dogs is substantially increased,” explains the ministry of Health, recording a decrease of the stray animals on the territory, the abandoned dogs continue to feed the population in the loose. Many pregnant females give birth and the kittens that do not die of starvation, when they become adults, they represent an additional tank to stray”.
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The role of volunteers
Italy is one of The Countries, the legislation is the most advanced in the field of protection and the protection of animals wandering. Unlike what happens in other nations, cats and dogs without a master are not suppressed, nor immediately or after an interval of time. It is up to the auditors to provide for the catching of stray dogs and cats and, subsequently, to keeping them in the kennels discounted up to their adoption or for life. An expensive commitment from the economic point of view. For this reason the associations and, increasingly often, the institutions they work primarily on prevention, with campaigns for sterilization, and against the drop, but also in the upstream, against the bad habit of buying lightly dogs and cats as if they were toys for their children, except then realize that a pet is a big commitment, in terms of money and time. The abandonment, or direct delivery to a kennel, they are often the next step. In the last period, the Enpa has recorded in its shelters, spread throughout all the Italian regions, many of the inputs due to the economic difficulties brought on to the families.
The boom in 2020
In time of emergency health associations have worked very hard to help homeowners who are sick and were hospitalized, and unable in the care of their friends home. The first lockdown, however, had stopped the transfers from the south to the north, and the activity was recovered only through the summer. 2020 has been a year boom for the adoption, in the autumn, it was understood that the trend was that. And in December, data were confirmed, and it is recorded in the case record of the park canile Monza, managed by the Enpa, who found himself without animals to give in adoption, such was the demand. An increase probably due also to the consequences of confinamenti domestic imposed by the pandemic, many people found themselves with more free time and have taken a step and maybe a long-postponed; others are dealt face up in the sun, and have found comfort in the company of an animal.
family Members
But in the case of brianza, that is a virtuous example for the structure that manages — which, compared to the other looks like a small resort, where they find hospitality, goats, horses, pigs, turtles, and other still — it is not the rule. And, of course, not the whole of Italy is moving in the same way. “It is also a cultural issue,” says the mr Brambilla. You have to fight with the idea that the stray dogs there’s always been, which is normal and which, therefore, it is useless to use resources to combat it. But it’s just not acting that the problem becomes chronic”. The parliamentary presented several bills that aim to counter the phenomenon, including the introduction in a range of sizes, from the tightening of the sanctions for anyone who abuses or abandons the inclusion of pets in the family status in the us municipal. A status that would require, therefore, the recognition of rights.
The role of volunteers
A patch to the absence of the institutions are trying to go for the associations. From those that operate at the national level, many local groups, up to the work of individual citizens who provide hosting to temporarily house their animals without a roof, and raising it on the social images of the animal in search of family. Sometimes dogs and cats that are master are transferred in the plane or in the train, but the costs are very high and not sustainable in large numbers. Especially if a new owner is still not there and if the animals are moved to shelters in the North to facilitate the adoption. It is here that take the field, people like Elizabeth Barbieri and Federico Tonin.
