Stop mistreatment and stray animals: let's save the lives of our 4-legged friends. Let's help them with an SMS to LEIDAA

Stop mistreatment and stray animals: let's save the lives of our 4-legged friends. Let's help them with an SMS to LEIDAA.

Stray animals but above all animal abuse is an aberrant and unworthy, criminal attitude.

Every life is precious, even more so that of the last of the last. The approximately 700 thousand wandering dogs and 2,4 million "free" cats in our country remind us of this: a host of innocent people living on the streets abandoned to themselves, exposed to hunger, cold, abuse. The tens of thousands of animals locked in the boxes of kennels and catteries, which we want to empty, remind us of this.

Mistreated animals remind us of this: the mistreatment, after the killing, is the most widespread crime among those to the detriment of animals. There it is they are reminiscent of wild animals whose habitats man has invaded and which are increasingly closer to us.

The Italian League for the Defense of Animals and the Environment they rescue them, treat them, find them a home or take them back to the woods. In addition to taking care of animals in danger, as well as encouraging adoptions, they also directly help the elderly and economically weaker people who do not want to give up the affection of a four-legged friend, despite the difficulties of the long crisis that began with the pandemic, And they defend animals everywhere from any form of mistreatment and abandonment.

From Sunday 12 November to Saturday 2 December 2023 you can also contribute to save and protect them.

Donate 2 euros with a text message to the number 45589 or 5/10 euros by calling from a landline.

Do your part, help them.

STRAY 2022, AN OVERALL LOOK

Stray animals are still a phenomenon very widespread in our country, although the exact dimensions are not known due to the lack of complete data and updated numbers. Not even the registry of pets, already foreseen by the 1991 law and maintained by the Regions, has so far worked correctly, given that many dogs are not registered there or many are not canceled at the time of death.

Not only: the regional information systems do not fully communicate with each other and with the new national database, the launch of which was announced by the Ministry of Health last July. Therefore, it may still be difficult, or even impossible, to exchange information relating to registered animals in real time, to promptly trace them in the event of loss or abandonment, facilitate the circulation of registry and health information on the animals and plan enforcement interventions.

The lack of objective elements of knowledge is not accidental. Although a good law, 281/1991, has been in force for decades, which specifies clearly what the Regions, what the Municipalities must do, what the Local Health Authorities must do (for example sterilizations), it is frequent, on the part of local administrations, the failure to fulfill these obligations, which in extreme cases, especially in the South, looks a lot like real sabotage.

The lack of adequate funding (despite the improvements in recent years) and serious controls, assisted by proportionate sanctions, on the implementation of 281 by local authorities has visible effects. All this prevents us from developing effective policies to combat a phenomenon that causes serious suffering to animals and it costs the community a lot. It is difficult to address a problem without knowing in detail what proportions it has, what distribution across the national territory, where the real critical issues are and without being certain that, on average, everyone is doing their duty.

The numbers reported below, largely the result of estimates, serve to give an idea of ​​the plague, fueled by abandonments and uncontrolled reproduction. The sensation is that of a country split in two, with a North (Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Piedmont, Lombardy, Liguria, Veneto, Valle d'Aosta and the Autonomous Provinces of Trento and Bolzano and also Tuscany) in which stray dogs canine is substantially contained and a Central-South where there are many strays, in some areas very many, and the situation often appears out of control. Where tension is highest, even the most sensational acts of cruelty and intolerance towards animals occur with worrying frequency.

The condition is also worrying of cat colonies, sometimes recognized by the authorities (as the law would require), sometimes tolerated, sometimes ignored. The South practically has no catteries.

The social cost of stray animals is very high, because the negative repercussions are many: health, safety, land management, tourist image. We pay for abandonments, the failure to apply current laws (sterilization) and the non-existence of a real policy to encourage adoptions.

The Italian League for the Defense of Animals and the Environment (LEIDAA), which has always been at the forefront in the fight against stray animals, intervenes mainly in three ways:

1) financing sterilization campaigns, through memoranda of understanding with veterinarians, in areas where the stray dog ​​emergency is more serious

2) by subsidizing local associations or small groups of volunteers active in the area

3) promoting responsible ownership at all levels and adoptions from kennels also with stables in the north.

Finally, there are national campaigns to raise awareness of responsible ownership and encourage adoption. Informed adoptions are the main tool for encouraging people to leave shelters and reduce returns. The longer a dog stays inside a shelter, the more difficult it will have to get used to life outside the shelter. So, if the general conditions allow it, it should remain there as little as possible.