Table of Contents
ABANDONMENT OF ANIMALS: ETHICAL CRIME BUT NOT ONLY
Living with an animal is not an obligation but a choice.
Adopting or buying an animal is a careful decision that must be responsibly and consciously weighed and cannot be dictated by an extemporaneous, and sometimes momentary, emotional impulse.
It is necessary to think long and hard before establishing a full and complete relationship with an animal.
A long-term commitment that requires dedication and a spirit of self-sacrifice from the first moment, always and forever.
Conscious decision-making and taking responsibility are the starting point for reducing the shameful figures of animal abandonment.
THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR THE ABANDONMENT OF ANIMALS
The abandonment of animals is an abject practice that no real motivation can justify.
In economically and culturally advanced areas, the phenomenon of animal abandonment has drastically reduced to the point where it is no longer an emergency.
In intermediate countries such as Italy, on the other hand, people still keep animals but do not possess the culture necessary to manage them.
Italy is backward in the actual adoption of measures to protect animals, and the vision on which said protection is currently based is also backward.
Lack of civility and cultural backwardness are at the root of the abominable phenomenon of animal abandonment.
ANIMAL NEGLECT AND THE ROLE OF ANIMAL HANDLERS
Only the spread of a responsible animal culture can lead to a reversal of the trend and help curb the scourge of animal abuse and abandonment.
Veterinary doctors, breeders, trainers, institutions and associations, the so-called “insiders,” are primarily responsible for educating and properly supervising those who adopt or buy an animal.
The sale and adoption of animals should be strictly and restrictively regulated, imposing dispositive obligations and enlisting the support and expertise of qualified professionals who are able to assess the requirements, motivations, and background of those who propose to adopt or purchase an animal of any species.
Animals, as sentient beings, are endowed with their own sentience and are able to feel the pain that can result from abandonment and lack of proper care.
THE FEELINGS OF AN ABANDONED ANIMAL
Psychological destabilization, loss of confidence, stress, anxiety, depression, neurotic attitudes, food refusal, self-harm: an absolute and total sense of loss, panic and terror.
These are the feelings of an abandoned animal.
Abandoners are not only monsters. He is also a criminal and the law clearly says so.
ABANDONMENT OF ANIMALS: RATIO LEGIS
Abandonment of an animal is equated with abandonment of an incapacitated person.
The ratio legis of the crime of animal neglect is to be found in the need to protect the feeling of common piety toward animals and the goal of encouraging ethically correct conduct through combating insensitivity, cynicism and cruelty.
Intentionally refusing to care for one’s dog, aware of its inability to be able to provide for itself independently is as serious a crime as physical removal.
ABANDONMENT OF ANIMALS IS A CRIMINAL OFFENSE
Animal abandonment is a misdemeanor offense.
The subjective element of the crime is guilt.
Our legal system provides for and punishes the abandonment of animals with the application ofArticle 727 of the Penal Code:
“
Anyone who abandons domestic animals or animals that have acquired habits of captivity shall be punished by imprisonment of up to one year or a fine of 1,000 to 10,000 euros.
The same punishment shall apply to anyone who keeps animals in conditions incompatible with their nature and productive of severe suffering
“.
The provision in Article 727 P.C., once rubriced “mistreatment of animals,” until a few years ago was the only sanctioning weapon against behavior that caused suffering to animals.
Following the regulatory intervention of Law 189/ 2004, however, the protection of animals in the Italian legal system was strengthened by the inclusion in Book II of the Penal Code of Title IX bis concerning “crimes against the feeling for animals.”
Maltreatment has been brought under the new Art. 544-ter and a more severe penalty regime has been provided for it.
NEGLECT AND DISINTEREST
The offenses punished, therefore, are twofold:
-abandonment of animals
-their detention in conditions that conflict with their nature and generate suffering.
Current case law, tracing the concept of abandonment back to neglect or disregard for the animal, punishes those who fail to respect the animal’s mental and physical needs, fail to properly care for it, or expose it to danger to its safety.
There is no excuse, mistreatment and abandonment of animals are prosecuted by law.
AFFECTIVE DEATH OF ABANDONED ANIMALS
Abandonment of animals is not only a crime but also a death sentence.
Yet although abandonment is by law a criminal offense, in practice the perpetrator is rarely identified and punished with exemplary punishment.
The penalties for abandoning an animal are laughable and not at all proportionate to the seriousness of the act committed.
Mandatory dog microchipping, which has been required by law since 2004, has served only relatively as a deterrent against abandonment.
Nevertheless, the problem of abandonment is not solved only by punishing the perpetrators.
What experts call “
emotional death
” of the animal involves 80 percent of abandoned dogs.
The vast majority are destined to die within a few weeks.
Those who survive, on the other hand, swell the ranks of the vast numbers of strays that populate urban environments or worse, end up in kennels, sentenced to life without guilt.
ABANDONMENT OF ANIMALS: COSTS TO THE COMMUNITY
One aspect to consider regarding animal abandonment is also the very high social costs.
There are expenses that need to be met. Expenses for the management of stray animals in the territory and for the custody of those given to kennels. Costs that are borne by the whole community.
Kennels are a remarkably profitable business for facility operators who win contracts with government agencies for the services of catching, sheltering, keeping and keeping alive stray dogs taken from the territory.
A way of “doing business” that feeds on and thrives precisely because of dropouts.
Who pays? You and the animals. You lose out of pocket; animals pay blamelessly with their lives.
Adopting an animal MUST BE a conscious choice, made in the full knowledge that it must be respected and protected every day, at all hours, in all seasons, always and forever.
The abandonment of animals is too often a consequence of lack of information about what it means to deal with a living being that has its own character and needs.
Too often the choice of adoption is made because they are attracted to a face to pet and not with a real awareness of all the changes that the arrival of a new member in the family entails.
An animal changes your life for the better, in everything.
The love you receive is immeasurable but you must deserve it.
If you think the time has also come for you to welcome a four-legged individual into your life, choose a trusted Veterinarian who can advise you in the right way how to manage and care for them in the best possible way.
The staff physicians at La Veterinaria Clinic are always available to you every day for consultations and examinations.
We would also like to remind you that Clinica La Veterinaria is always open, every day h24 including holidays and with First Aid service from 8 pm to 8 am.
For the joy of seeing them HAPPY.
