17/10/2019

(6 October 2019)

Manduria, State Police intervenes to get things moving with ASL: IHP finally obtains horses’ seizure
Now the Public Prosecutor’s office must authorise their transfer

After the atrocious death of Nerone at the Corte dei Vescovi riding school in Manduria (TA), the legal battle of IHP to have the other animals seized has been won at last: the Prosecutor’s Office of Taranto requisitioned the premises, 3 horses and 2 ponies and the custody of the horses was handed over to IHP.

The result came after weeks of legal actions and is thanks to the perseverance of IHP, which never gave an inch, and above all to the professionalism of lawyer Franco Di Lauro who is following this case closely.

The action taken by the State Police was decisive in halting the procrastination: on 4 October the police agents, coordinated by Commissioner Conte, conducted a reconnaissance mission which resulted in all the animals undergoing health checks (those that according to the ASL – the local health authority – were in good condition) by a specifically appointed veterinarian. Here is what he found: two horses emaciated and dehydrated, one with infected and fistulized wounds to the chest and ear which had never been treated; one very gaunt pony and another with abnormally grown hooves. These findings were clear evidence of what IHP had been saying for weeks, ignored even by the Ministry of Health.

However, there’s another important element to consider: the PP ordered that the animals remain at the riding school and that IHP could send specifically appointed people to take care of them: an intolerable situation that would in no way guarantee the safety of the animals, since the association cannot guarantee a 24/7 presence at a private venue which, in addition, IHP had claimed to be unsuitable and about which the Asl itself, in its report of 17 September, declared the following: ’sanitation is very poor, with malfunctioning or inoperative drinking troughs, feed and fodder storage areas are in a very bad state, lighting is insufficient, manure and slurry scattered everywhere, manure-heap submerged by a huge accumulation of manure, waste of all kinds everywhere, including burned waste, dangerous objects, strangling objects, suffocating objects and broken or non-existent fences".

IHP responsibly accepted custody of the horses, but immediately sent a notice to the magistrate asking for authorization to move the animals to a safe place in the province of Bari. In fact, even though an IHP-appointed person has been taking care of the horses since Saturday morning (the requisition took place late Friday evening), the situation is absurd and dangerous. Indeed, apart from the easily imaginable inconvenience, another individual is on the premises, perhaps an employee of the owner, with a hostile and provocative attitude towards those who go there to take care of the animals.