It was September 2023, Spino, Pumba, Dorothy, Carolina, Bartolomeo, Crusca, Crosta, Wednesday and Ursula, the pigs from the Sairano shelter of the Progetto Cuori Liberi Association, died, killed by the Lombard health authorities who had ordered their slaughter.
They were killed because they belonged to the same species domesticated and exploited for meat during an epidemic African swine feveran emergency that threatened the food production sector.
We talked about it here: Free Heart Pigs: the killings in the Sairano shelter a year ago, but nothing has changed since then
Now the sentence of the TAR Milan leaves one dismayed: in declaring unproceedable the appeal of the associations, the reasons given by the administrative court refer to the European regulations and the need to preserve public health and farms in the area.
Let us remember right away that PSA does not pose any public health problem, as it is not a zoonosis and therefore not dangerous for humans – say the associations. It is a disease with a high mortality rate among pigs and for this reason the response given to the confirmation of an outbreak is to kill all the animals.
However, let us also remember that the mortality rate is not 100% and that there is no evidence that helps in the definition of treatments and vaccines also because, beyond the power of the virus, the immediate “killing” procedures do not allow us to evaluate and study the response of animals to disease, different therapies or disease management.
In the ruling, the TAR refers to the fact that the animals at the Progetto Cuori Liberi shelter had no possibility of care: however, the animals were cared for at all times by their owners, unlike what normally happens in farm sheds. Rather, the associations recall, the untimely intervention of the ATS of Pavia which, when called to perform euthanasia on some suffering subjects, did not immediately go to the shelter, arriving the following day when the subjects in question were now dead.
With regard to the exemptions which, it is reported, cannot be applied in the case of animals already affected by ASF, we believe that it is a restrictive reading of the regulations: non-DPA animals, i.e. animals that have left the food production circuit, housed in permanent shelters and removed to mistreatment, do not fall within the commercial logic of transport, fattening and slaughter which pose serious risks for the spread of the virus.
They fall within the sphere of “pet” animals to all intents and purposes and it is the task of the legislator as well as the judiciary to innovate and offer regulatory and juridical ways that protect these subjects and respond adequately to the evolution of society, which also and above all concerns the relationship with animals and nature, in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution.
For this reason, the LAV and LNDC Animal Protection Associations with the Network of free animal sanctuaries and the Free Hearts Project Refuge announce an appeal to the Council of State for justice.
