10/04/2011

(2011, April 10th)

As many of you will remember, on October 2010, Edoardo Stoppa and Striscia la Notizia’s crew found six mistreated horses inside an illegal shed in Agropoli (Province of Salerno).

The owner wasn’t very happy to see the cameras and expressed his disagreement in a very impolite way. After this episode, Edoardo was admitted to the hospital and the owner was put under home arrest.

The horses were immediately sequestrated by the judicial authorities due to mistreatment, and the Health Minister’s Task Force for the Animals gave them the first medical attentions. Unfortunately one of them was in such serious condition it died shortly after.

After the usual bureaucratic slowness, the Authorities decided to take the surviving horses to the only place in Italy explicitly authorized to receive them, Italian Horse Protection, to guarantee them a serene future.

Shortly after the arrival, one of the sequestrated horses, Bianca, gave birth to a super-nice colt. We named him Libero (Free)...and he will always stay free!

Unfortunately, the foal contracted an infection, whose cause is probably to be found in his stressed and debilitated Mon’s inability to pass him the necessary antibodies with her milk. So, due days after his birth, the veterinaries therapies started: plasma transfusions, joints flushes, antibiotics. All of it done by our veterinaries, Iacopo Secco e Agnese Santi (read our 2011 March 25th and 2011 March 31st communicates).

Now Libero is doing much better. His life is no longer in danger and, after spending the first weeks of his life closed inside a stall because of his delicate health, we are slowly getting him used to life outside, in a herd, as every horse should live.

Italian Horse Protection thanks – in the freed horses’ behalf – Striscia La Notizia for discovering the place where they were mistreated and for actively working to put an end at it. We also thank all the people who helped and still help us, with their donations, to cover the huge expenses we have to face on daily bases to give a life worth living to the 63 equines we host.

Help us too! Distance adopt Libero or another of our guests!

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