06/03/2011

(2011, March 6th)

On Saturday afternoon 5th March 2011, during one of the trial runs of the “Corsa a vuoto” – a rider-less horse race run over a paved street in the small town of Rociglione (Viterbo) – one of the horses running on the rain-slippery cobbled street, slipped and slammed against the metallic barriers delimitating the “racecourse”. He was pierced by one of the metallic tubes of this “protection” and died in a pool of blood after several minutes of convulsions, under the crowd’s terrified eyes.

IHP has requested the sequestration of the dead equine’s corpse and of the “racecourse”, in order to evaluate the possible criminal liabilities regarding this event. It has also invited the Prefect of Viterbo, the Police Chief and the Carabinieri to explain why the law enforcement officers didn’t act and stopped a race that was clearly illegal.

In fact in Italy there is a legislation regarding the “palii” (traditional races) issued on July 21st, 2009 by the Health Minister. Said legislation dictates the minimal requirements for the animals and the crowd’s safety that are necessary in order to organize an event featuring equines. Among such requirements, it is listed that “the soil of the track or the field must be suitable to adsorb and mitigate the hooves’ impact on the ground and to avoid sliding” and that the “racecourse must be protected with adequate collision bulkheads in order to mitigate possible impacts or falls” (points b and c, all. A, OM 21/07/2009).


In 2010 Rocinciglione Commune even tried (without success) to have said ordinance suspended by appealing the TAR (Regional Administrative Tribunal).

As far as Italian Horse Protection knows, at the end of February 2011, the Health Minister formally invited Ronciglione Commune to follow the indications listed in the Ordinance, listing in a very detailed report all the critical points of the town racecourse including, obviously, the paved street ground.

In the days preceding the trial, animalist associations and private citizens denounced the dangerousness and illegality of the race, as reported by the press too.

Nevertheless the race has been organized without any covering the street ground, made mostly by squared cobbles, utilizing simple street barriers made by metallic tubes as bulkheads, and with a pouring rain making the ground even more slippery.

IHP’s position about this kind of events is that they should be completely abolished. In any case, we want to point out how, in the events so far organized following the dictates of the “Palii Ordinance”, the number of incidents has decreased, although such ordinance still grants to the Communes the possibility of organizing events with a historical value (events we would like to see transformed in historical re-enactments not involving non-human animals).

We are saddened to see how an entire municipality willingly disregarded a Law of the State – which, by the way, only indicates the minimal requirements, which should be dictated just by common sense– causing a terrible incident and giving an execrable example to their citizens: an administration knowingly breaking the Law.


Link: Request of explanations

Video: Palio di Ronciglione - 2011, March 5th.