30/09/2026

In the Monti area of Anagni (province of Frosinone), free-roaming horses and cattle wander across roads, stray onto private land and come right up to people's homes. They damage fences, vegetable gardens, the playground and the five-a-side football pitch, take over the drinking troughs, and block cars and the school bus. Local news outlets have reported on the situation, giving a voice to residents of Belvedere Castellone and Fucigno, who say there are between 50 and 70 horses. Complaints have been going on for more than ten years: the first formal complaint was filed in 2014, and another was sent to the Municipality and the Prefecture in 2023. Residents keep asking the same question: who should step in, with what means, and when?

Where these animals come from

The horses of Anagni are what IHP calls stray horses: animals whose breeders or keepers have lost control of them, through neglect or by choice. The problem is spreading. It is most often discussed in Lazio and Campania, but it also occurs in other regions, for example in Molise with the Pentro horses. It is the result of policies that encourage equid breeding without adequate checks on breeders.

The "semi-wild" misconception

According to a Ministry of Health note of 6 September 2022, "semi-wild" equines are those that live and reproduce exclusively in the wild, without contact with humans. In the same note, the Ministry delegates the planning and management of these populations to Regions, Provinces, Municipalities and local health authorities (ASL). IHP considers this a misinterpretation of EU law.

Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/2035 (Art. 60) and Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/963 (Art. 31) define equines kept in semi-wild conditions differently. They refer to kept equines, meaning animals that belong to an operator. These animals live in designated areas that the Member State has notified to the European Commission and registered as an establishment, together with the relevant geographical data. Only one derogation applies to them: their identification in the registry may be postponed until the horse is removed from the population, for example to be sent to slaughter or moved elsewhere. These are therefore not ownerless animals, and they are not free to roam anywhere they like, let alone onto private land.

The horses of Anagni are therefore not semi-wild equids but stray ones, a category the State urgently needs to regulate. Offloading a nationwide problem onto municipalities leads to one of two opposite outcomes. One is inaction, which Anagni residents describe as "passing the buck." The other is improvised intervention, up to and including capture and culling. In 2025 the Lazio Region allocated €600,000 in grants to municipalities for the containment of "feral" equids and cattle. The accompanying guidelines also allow for culling and the sale of the meat. IHP has called for these guidelines to be annulled and for public disclosure of how and where the funds were spent.

What the associations are asking the Ministry

For more than a year, IHP and other associations* have been urging the Ministry of Health to bring its approach into line with EU law and to draw a clear distinction between three categories:

• Semi-wild: horses that belong to breeders, are identifiable, and are tied to a defined area that is registered and monitored by the local health authorities, as required by EU Regulations.
• Feral: populations that have lived free for at least three generations, such as the horses of Val d'Aveto and Calvana. They currently have no legal protection whatsoever and should be recognised as a shared heritage.
• Stray: animals that have escaped their owners' control. They require specific national rules covering identification, tracing of those responsible, penalties and non-lethal management, instead of delegation to mayors.

"The Ministry cannot wash its hands of this," says IHP President Sonny Richichi. "The problem starts upstream, with policies that push horse production without keeping breeders in check. Downstream, it falls on animals, citizens and local administrations, who are left without the tools to deal with it. On 6 October we will once again ask the Ministry to correct an interpretation that conflicts with EU law, and to take responsibility for stray and feral horses."

On Tuesday 6 October, IHP will attend the new meeting called at the Ministry on this issue. In Anagni, as in many other parts of Italy, residents and horses share the same interest: a clear rule that establishes who is responsible for these animals.

* LAV (Lega Anti Vivisezione), Associazione Salvaguardia e Sviluppo della Calvana, I Cavalli Selvaggi dell'Aveto and Fondazione Islander.