In 2022, in Acate in the province of Ragusa, a pony was tied to a car and dragged for hundreds of meters, dying in unspeakable suffering. The episode, filmed by some surveillance cameras, led to the reporting of a 32-year-old man, accused of aggravated theft and animal cruelty. Three years later, however, the Court of Ragusa acquitted the accused with the formula “the fact does not exist”, a decision which sparked indignation and protests from animal rights associations.
The laws are there, but they are not enforced
Activists from the Vegan Project called the ruling “a failure of justice“. And not without reason. Since 2004, Law 189 expressly prohibits cruelty to animals, providing for penalties of up to two years in prison for those who cause their death and fines of up to 30,000 euros for torture or injuries.
Added to this framework is the constitutional reform of 2022, which modified Article 9 of the Constitution by introducing the protection of animals among the fundamental principles of the State. Italy today recognizes animals as sentient beings, in line with Article 13 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. Yet, in the case of Achates’ pony, these laws seem to have remained a dead letter. “There is no lack of law, there is a lack of will to apply it” the activists denounce.
The mail bombing campaign
The court’s decision, according to the animal rights movement, sends a devastating message: those who mistreat animals can go unpunished. For this reason, Progetto Vegan launched a mail bombing campaign addressed to the Ragusa Prosecutor’s Office, the Prefecture, the competent Ministries and the Presidency of the Sicily Region.
The requests are precise: full publication of the reasons for the sentence, review of the case, ministerial investigations into investigative shortcomings and mandatory training for magistrates and law enforcement on animal welfare.
“It is time for justice to call things by their name: cruelty, crime, suffering“, write the activists. Until the law is truly applied, every mistreated animal will remain a victim twice: of violence and indifference.
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