22/01/2013
An efficient team work put end to the suffering of nine horses and one pony, housed in crumbling illegal stables in Catania. The animals were probably used to pull carts or even for clandestine races: these were the only occasions they left these dark stables, hidden in the heart of the city. Most of them are thin and clearly depressed by all points of views. They were discovered by Edoardo Stoppa, during the umpteenth reportage for Striscia La Notizia, gathering anonymous reports. Then the State Police intervened and proceeded to the immediate sequestration of the animals for mistreatment; among the other things the animals had no documentation. Finally our association gave its availability to receive four of them, which arrived on 17th January transported by a Police’s van. It has been impossible to receive all of them for several reasons: beside the high number of equines already living in the rescue centre (71) and managed thanks to our volunteers’ help and beside the fact the other six animals are stallions – and thus impossible to properly manage given the characteristic of our centre - it is once again the financial factor that set a limit. In fact, as it happened for the two mares reduced to skeletons sequestrated in Lucca (see article), in this case too the Procurator Office has set a condition to definitively approve the transfer: we had to renounce to any kind of expenses refund. “Finally some light is shed on a huge, long-lasting phenomenon - says IHP’s president - We congratulate with the State Police and Striscia La Notizia for these results, but especially with the citizens that, with their reports, broke the wall of silence that surrounds the detention of horses in conditions incompatible with their ethologic nature. A phenomenon very common in the entire country, but that in South Italy has deep ties with the organized criminality. Now we must all work to help the sequestrated horses and to do this we need the essential economical help of people who love animals. The Catania Procurator Office asked for IHP to renounce to any kind of expenses refund and we accepted to take the horses away from that squalor. Now we count on the solidarity of sensitive citizens!” WATCH STRISCIA LA NOTIZIA’S REPORTAGE ABOUT THE ARRIVAL OF THE HORSES AT IHP RESCUE CENTRE PHOTO GALLERY WATCH STRISCIA LA NOTIZIA’S REPORTAGE DURING THE REQUISITION (December 2012) READ OUR APPEAL FOR DONATIONS