Italy has approximately 600,000 stray dogs, a quarter of which are in dog pounds, according to LAV, Italy’s anti-vivisection league. There are 1144 dog pounds and around 500 of those are known as canili lager, a term to strike fear into the heart of any poor dog unlucky enough to end up in one.
In 1991 Italy introduced a no-kill law for strays. They decided that every stray that was rounded up should be should be housed, vaccinated, fed and eventually re-homed. The public canili sanitari couldn’t cope and so funds were made available for private kennels to take on some of the burden. The owners of these private kennels – canili lager - would be paid per head. It seemed a good idea at the time.
But what happened became a national disgrace. Unscrupulous people wanting to make as much money as they could crammed as many dogs as they could into inadequate kennels. It was against their interests to re-home them, because then they would lose their per capita income, so they kept their presence quiet. They were Italy’s invisible and forgotten dogs. Many have spent their entire miserable lives in filthy conditions, attacked or half starved never seeing a blade of grass or knowing what it was like to be taken for a walk or played with. The well-intentioned law effectively backfired spectacularly, leading to a nightmare existence for hundreds of thousands of dogs.
Recently, in a large part thanks to modern technology, things have taken a turn for the better. The rise of the Internet and the work of a network of volunteer animal lovers throughout Italy has meant there is now hope for the ‘invisible dogs’. People began tracking down canili lager, which were often hidden or well-guarded, insisting on visiting the dogs and taking photos on their mobile phones, which they then posted online. Slowly these internet appeals have led to some dogs finding new homes. And as more canili lager became exposed, the owners reluctantly had to agree to the volunteers visiting the inmates regularly, and taking them out, even for just 20 minutes exercise a month – not much but better than nothing.
Now the Ministry of Health have also vowed to tackle the problem. Below is an aritcle that has been forwarded to me iin Italian by an animal organization, so I translated it and thought I would post it. I think they are a bit hard on the internet adoptions at the end, but everyone has a right to an opinion and I know from my own experience that taking on a rescue dog, while extremely rewarding, is not easy.
The Ministry of Health ‘A-Team
Against the Canili Lager
Original article on www.newnotizie.it (translated by Fiona Tankard)
The Ministry of Health, under the direction of under
secretary Francesca Martini, has formed
a task force, comprising twelve vets and four legal
and administrative personnel, whose job it is to discover and eradicate the
terrible canili lager and to resolve the issue of strays.
A ‘canile lager’ is a type
of shelter which does not respect even the minimum hygiene regulations, where
love for the animals it houses does not exist and where there is not the
slightest shred of respect for the poor unfortunate creatures who end up within
its hellish walls. Starving, sick, often
badly treated, beaten or even killed by people for whom an animal means less
then the dirt on their shoes.
The life expectancy of
these dogs is very short and what life they do have incarcerated in these terrible
places is hard. It is to stamp out this scourge on society that Ms Martini has put
together the team who will work together with the Carabinieri and its
specialist Nas unit.
The “A-Team” (Animal Team), as they might be called, will inspect the management of these
canili and undertake follow up visits, keeping them under close scrutiny. They
will be able to intervene directly in the case of emergencies and will also be
responsible for putting together a PR team whose job will be to communicate
with the public and the owners of these canili, informing them of the
various laws that cover animal welfare. This is something that should be
obvious, part of being a human being, but so often it isn’t the case.
This is what animal lover
and “animal rights warrior” Martini says:
“We have started an
innovative and reforming movement at the Ministry of Health at zero cost. In a
federal country like ours, you have to have ministries that respond to real and
urgent needs. This task force represents a fundamental, concrete and active
method of tackling the problems of strays and the mistreatment of animals in
Cosimo Piccinno, chief
of Nas says: “This initiative is designed to put a stop to the degradation,
maltreatment and violence against animals that is all too common and widespread
in a civilised country like
Thirty percent represents
one in three, and it’s not only dog pounds and shelters that have been reported
to the legal authorities. Who decides who should be allowed to run an
establishment like this? Who in the town council decides, for example, that a
person is fit to run a public dog shelter? . And isn’t that person also responsible for what the inspectors have found in their work
of the last couple of years? And why hasn’t anyone ever checked private
shelters? Now anyone –
volunteer, association or private citizen can contact the Ministry of Health to
report cases of maltreatment or violation of the laws governing the humane
treatment of animals by sending an email to : tutela.animale@sanita.it
There are an estimated 700
000 stray dogs (probably more), of which only a small percentage are rescued from
all kinds of cruelty by animal associations and individual volunteers. They are
put in kennels, cared for on the streets or put up for adoption. And this too
is another problem which I will dedicate brief space to here. Because the
phenomenon of “24 hour adoption” is, without doubt, another grave problem for our
society. The ease with which dogs and cats are adopted is shocking. Sometimes the fault is that of the volunteers and
their less than rigorous checking procedures, but more often than not, the
fault lies with the family who wants a dog and in their enthusiasm, fails to
realise that they are taking on a potential problem. They have little
experience of coping with a rescue dog and resulting in terrible stress for the
volunteers and, worse, for the poor animals involved who were oh-so-nearly
adopted.
Let’s hope that the
reduction, if not total destruction, of the canili lager will result in an
increasing number of animals being sterilized, leading to fewer cats and dogs. Let’s
also hope for better controlled and more rigorous adoption procedures. And finally
let’s hope that all those animals who have tried to give their love and
affection to people who just don’t understand and will never understand,
finally get some happiness too.
A.S
Link
to the article in Italian:
http://www.newnotizie.it/2010/05/20/a-team-del-ministero-della-salute-contro-i-canili-lager/
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