26/05/2026

Tarquinia, 28 March 2024. Four horses — two of them young, microchipped fillies accustomed to human contact — are shot dead after being spotted near the Aurelia State Road. The ordinance issued by Mayor Alessandro Giulivi had authorised their capture and, "where necessary", their killing. The veterinarian appointed to carry out the chemical immobilisation was Dr Alan Maximilian Risolo. The horses never came back.

More than two years later, IHP is still waiting for full clarity on that episode. The Public Prosecutor requested that proceedings against Risolo and ASL veterinarian Dr M.P. — both initially investigated for killing of animals under Article 544-bis of the Italian Penal Code — be archived. IHP formally opposed the request. The next hearing is scheduled for 30 June 2026.

In the meantime, the same Dr Risolo has returned to public attention. This time, the setting is the Monti Lucretili Regional Natural Park in Lazio. According to local press reports from 21 May, the Park awarded Risolo — an expert in chemical immobilisation — a direct contract worth €15,000 for the management of feral cattle, with a fee schedule of €200 per sedation and €600 per culling. The agreed minimum target was 50 bovines within the year. At a conference, Risolo himself reportedly confirmed that the quota is nearly met: approximately 40 animals have already been eliminated.

Healthy animals. Living freely for years in a protected area. Shot dead.

THE INCOMPLETE INVESTIGATION INTO TARQUINIA

On the 2024 Tarquinia case, IHP filed an opposition to archiving, arguing that the investigations conducted to date were "partial, incomplete and inadequate to clarify the serious responsibilities that emerged in the management of the operation." The case documents reveal numerous contradictions between the accounts given by those involved, a lack of technical analysis into the suitability of the sedation drugs used, and no assessment of whether concrete alternatives to killing existed.

The area was flat and partially fenced. Non-lethal containment techniques were available. Two of the four animals were microchipped, and therefore traceable to their owners. None of these factors appears to have been thoroughly examined before the decision was made to reach for the rifles.

"Those horses could and should have been saved," said Sonny Richichi, President of IHP. "The culling was not the only option available, and the operational approach adopted raises serious questions from a professional, ethical and legal standpoint. We are calling for the investigation to continue and for all responsibilities to be established."

ANOTHER PLACE, THE SAME METHOD

In the Monti Lucretili case, the Lazio Region allocated €600,000 to local municipalities for the management of feral domestic animals — a measure that risks becoming a blanket authorisation for culling, extending beyond cattle and horses to potentially include goats, pigs and stray dogs.

MP Patrizia Prestipino, who also serves as Animal Rights Ombudsman for the City of Rome, was unequivocal: "We need to put a stop to this wild west against animals. You cannot resolve every containment issue by shooting."

For IHP, this is an unacceptable state of affairs. It is intolerable that in Italy, whenever an animal becomes an inconvenience — because it moves where it shouldn't, because no traceable owner exists, because managing it differently takes time and resources — the default response remains culling. Quick, cheap, final. And always presented as "necessary."