The Carabinieri of the NAS, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, have carried out an intense control activity, which has involved the entire national territory, in public and private kennels, in order to ascertain the correct management of the structures and in particular the state of well-being of the "four-legged friends".
Article Key Points
A total of 876 kennels were inspected, of which 244 were found to be irregular (equal to 27%), sanctioning 29 people for criminal violations and 230 for administrative offences, for a total of 180 thousand euros. The results of the interventions determined, in the most serious cases, the seizure of 26 structures and 871 quadrupeds.
The main violations concerned hygienic/structural and authorization deficiencies in the areas intended for shelter and degassing, number of boxes (in some cases built illegally in insufficient dimensions), irregular disposal of animal carcasses, failure to register animals in the canine registry, irregular medication management.
Animal abuse and abandonment
The crimes contested were mainly the mistreatment and abandonment of animals caused by keeping dogs in conditions incompatible with their nature, failure to respect welfare (lack of hygiene, overcrowding), carrying out surgical operations of conchectomy (ear cutting) and caudectomy (tail cutting) for aesthetic purposes and not motivated by pathological reasons as well as the use of expired drugs (in one circumstance by more than 7 years)..
During the control activity, two cases of illicit trafficking of companion animals were also ascertained by the NAS of Turin and Perugia through the introduction into the national territory of dog puppies without identification/health documentation (so-called passport ), fraudulently regularized through inclusion in the canine registers and related microchipping.
NAS NAPLES
16 dogs of various breeds (Labrador, Chihuahua, Poodle, Pomeranian Spitz) were seized because they were found abandoned in a kennel in the province of Naples, which also suffered from serious hygienic-structural deficiencies. The owner, reported to the Judicial Authority, was also charged with failing to follow the procedure for activating the breeding facility and failing to register the animals using a microchip. The overall value of the violations amounts to 8 thousand euros.
The Neapolitan Unit has also identified, in a private land in the province of Naples, and seized a kennel with 49 dogs without authorization and built with materials unsuitable for the nature of the animals; waste materials from demolition works were also found within the area. The two owners of the land and the manager of the kennel were reported to the competent Judicial Authority.
Seven dogs seized in the province of Naples
The same NAS, in another private kennel managed by an association based in the province of Naples, seized 7 dogs because they had undergone bilateral conchectomy (ear cropping) and caudectomy (tail docking) in the absence of specific therapeutic indications.
The health director of the facility was reported at liberty and was also accused of irregularities regarding vaccination prophylaxis and given prescriptions for management irregularities.
SALERNO NHS
27 packs of drugs were seized from a kennel located in the province of Salerno, of which 24 were for human use and 3 were for hospital use, some of which had expired since 2015. The owner of the kennel together with the medical director of the facility were referred to the competent Judicial Authority.
Article published on 25 January 2023 - 11:19
