(4th July 2012)

The NOPALIO campaign was launched by IHP on October 2011 and has been supported by many Italian and foreign associations.

Among the various initiatives, there is a petition asking for the ban of the use of animals in palii and historical events. The petition reached its announced deadline on 30th June, with a result that led us to some considerations.

As to today, we collected 10.527 signatures (6.801 collected online on the www.nopalio.it site + 3.726 on paper forms, collected by us in several occasions or sent to us by supporters of this initiative).

The signatures will be given to the Health Ministry as soon as we have the chance to do it.

The number of signatures, far from being exalting, gives us an idea of the scarce awareness of this typically Italian phenomenon even by people caring for animals and their wellbeing. This suggest us the kind of work we need to carry on in the next months. These are our considerations:

1) The Italian citizens probably have no perception of what really happens in a palio, and we believe it is due to a misguided use of the medias and the scarcity of pictures and videos (themes that will soon been addressed by IHP);
2) The Italian associations confirm to be little used to join their efforts for a common goal: we have received several adhesions to NOPALIO (see list below), but a few considerations or ideas. Also, only a few associations have promoted the petition among their members and supporters. We hope this approach will change and evolve, since we believe that only working together we will obtain great results for the animals.
3) The foreign associations don’t have a clear idea of what the palii are, and far from considering them a priority, they showed scarce interest. Several of them, while adhering to the campaign, didn’t ask to their supporters to sign the petition, despite several solicitations.

The NOPALIO campaign goes on: last month we launched another initiatives, asking to Italian citizens to report us the palii and historical races held in their area, so to be able to map all of the events of this kind held in Italy.

It is a preparatory work for the next months, when we’ll try to act in advance and efficiently in case of palii organized against the law and to document the other palii, to show the real face of this exploitation.

It is of these days the news of the death of a mare during the palio di Fossano (CN), the umpteenth victim of a barbarous and anachronistic entertainment that must be stopped.

Here there are our last initiatives regarding the palii:

- Become IHP’s eyes at the palii (23rd April)
- Complain against the palio of Legnano (25th May)
- Charges filed for the incident happened during a historical race (1st June, with VIDEO)
- Protests against the palio of Ferrara (4th June)


LIST OF ITALIAN ASSOCIATIONS ADHERING TO NOPALIO (click on www.nopalio.it to see links):

AgireOra Network
Animalisti Italiani
AnimalsAsia Italia
Arca 2005
ASOM - Associazione Salto Oltre il Muro
Dog Angels
Freccia 45
Il Rifugio degli Asinelli ONLUS
LAV - Lega Anti Vivisezione
OIPA Italia - Organizzazione Internazionale Protezione Animali
Promiseland.it
Scuderia dell’Unicorno


LIST OF ITALIAN ASSOCIATION THAT DIDN’T ANSWER OUR CALL:

100% animalisti
ANPANA
Horse Angels
La coscienza degli animali



LIST OF FOREIGN ASSOCIATIONS ADHERING TO NOPALIO (click on www.nopalio.it to see links):

AISPA - Anglo Italian Society for the Protection of Animals
ANDA - Asociaciòn Nacional para la Defensa de los Animales
Cretan Animal Welfare Group
Equine Welfare Alliance
International Fund for Horses
NetAP - Network for Animal Protection
One Voice
Save the Dogs and other Animals onlus
Sey - Suomen Eläinsuojeluyhdistysten liitto ry
Sloboda zvierat
The Funny Farm - Horse Rescue Association
Vier Pfoten
Viva!