Italy has about 600,000 stray dogs, mainly in the southern parts of the country, and among these, there are about 150,000 dogs in different enclosures. There are 1,440 shelters in the country and about 500 of these are so-called "canili lager" where dogs have to stay the rest of their lives without a chance of being adopted (information from the LAV - Anti Vivisection Leaugue Italy in 2010). Until 1991, the authorities tried to control the number of stray dogs by capturing the dogs and after three days kill them. This ended in 1991 when a new law, No. 281, was introduced.
Owned dogs are often abandoned during vacation time at the roadside and hunters abandon, after hunting season, hunting dogs that are not considered up to standard. These dogs mate and produce puppies that have never been near a home. Even owned dogs are allowed to roam free outdoors and the majority of these are not castrated, so they also produce puppies.
Stray dogs live a hard life, they are chased away from the tourist areas and are considered as a threat to children and cattle. Many dogs are also caught on a regular basis and placed in private enclosures or in state-owned shelters which become the dogs' end station.
Italy's animal protection law
Dog owners are required by law to tag and register their dogs. It is an offense to neglect, abuse and abandon their animals. The law also deals with the state's duty of care concerning homeless animals and to provide a check of stray dogs population. Each municipality must come into an agreement with a local enclosure / shelter. The agreement means that the stray dogs have to be reported, captured and brought to the shelter. If no owner claims the dog, it can be adopted after 60 days. Captured cats may be released after castration.It is not permitted to kill healthy dogs in the shelters. This means that the majority of captured dogs will spend the remaining of their lives in the shelters, since it is not very usual that Italians adopt dogs from there.
Castration for managing the population of stray animals is mentioned only for cats in the law. In some regional regulations, however, neutering of dogs can be compulsory; all dogs that are placed in municipal shelters, or private shelters that receive grants from the municipality, must be castrated by a veterinarian.
A supplement was made in 2004, Law no. 189. This law strengthens penalties for animal cruelty with prison terms of up to three years and a heavy fine. Trade in fur and fur from cats and dogs are prohibited. To abandon an animal may lead to imprisonment up to one year and fines of up to € 10,000. A person that kills an animal out of cruelty is punishable by imprisonment for 18 months, and a fine of up to € 15,000. To neglect or abuse an animal gives prison sentences of up to 12 months.
But in practice, these laws give no real protection for the stray animals. In the huge, mostly private shelters, the public grants aren't used for the dogs' care and nursing. The grants, millions of euros, disappear in the shelter owners' pockets, or finance other crimes. Corruption, where both politicians, veterinarians, inspectors are involved, make the situation very difficult to overcome.
Italy's invisible and forgotten dogs
In 1991, a new law was introduced, no. 281, which declared that it was not allowed to kill stray dogs. Instead, stray dogs would be placed in shelters, vaccinated, fed and eventually become adopted. As the authorities did not manage this themselves, funds were made available for private enclosure to take over part of the burden. The owners of these private enclosures, canili lager, were paid on a daily basis 2-7 EUR per animal.This led to a tragedy for thousands of dogs, because unscrupulous people took the chance to earn as much money as possible by filling small, inadequate enclosures with too many dogs. Any interest in finding new homes for the dogs didn't exist since the grants would then cease to come. On the contrary, the owners of these enclosures acted in silence. The dogs had to spend their entire miserable lives in tiny, filthy spaces, skinny and half-starved, often abused and injured in dog fights without getting veterinary care. They never came out for exercise.
Eventually, the conditions improved for dogs in some places thanks to different networks of Italian animal activists who started track down these hidden and well-guarded nightmare shelters. Animal activists insisted on visiting dogs and photos of the dogs' situation were published on the Internet. This led to that some dogs became adopted, and that the owners of the shelters had to permit animal activists to regularly walk the dogs, although only a 20-minute walk per month.
Health authorities also took hold of the issue. A working group was formed, consisting of veterinarians, lawyers and administrative staff. Their task was to inventory and inspect a number of all these terrible shelters, and to try to solve the problem of the large number of street dogs. The group would also inform the owners of the enclosures, as well as dog owners in general about the country's animal protection laws. Corruption among all parties has led to that the controls are not sufficient.
Abuses are continuing in several places. Many dogs are sick without getting veterinary care and die in agony. In the summer, they are exposed to the sun without being able to seek shade, in winter, they are exposed to cold. But as long as the financial contributions for shelter owners continue to be provided and corrupt politicians turn a blind eye to the matter, no change for the dogs will happen.
