...my treasures do not sparkle they clink,
they shine in the sun and neigh in the night...

 

 

Colleferro update – the emergency continues!

07/02/2013

(2013, February 7th.)


Dear Friends, with this update we would like to thank every one of our supporters during this difficult operation which is fast becoming a race against time to save dozens of animals from death from starvation or from dehydration. It is incredible that in these days, not a stone’s throw from the capital city of this country, something like this can have been going on for over 20 years!

How can it be that the authorities in these regions, Colleferro, Segni, Paliano, Valmontone, Artena – who have been aware all this time of skeletal animals right there beside a main road, aware of those lying on the ground in agony dying of hunger and cold, of the corpses putrefying, of the skeletons of horses, of the barbed wire everywhere including on the guard rails of state highways – how can it be that they have never managed to take concrete action in all these years?

It took two citizens who, at great personal risk, seized courage in both hands to report this horror; then following IHP’s report to the NAS (Health and Safety branch of the Carabinieri) and the Health Ministry, a rescue operation without precedent in Italy went into action and is still ongoing and still far from complete.

While local councils, the regional section of the ASL (Italian Health Authority) and the Carabinieri toss the ball of responsibility from one to the other, refusing to subsidize the operation, the bills for feeding and giving medical care to the animals are being footed by the IHP, the Donkey Sanctuary and ENPA (National Entity for Protection of Animals). Joining this solidarity effort are some pharmaceutical companies and some of the government authorities such as the Corpo Forestale (Parks and Forests Agency) and the Police. We will be listing all these helpers in the coming days with our sincere thanks to everyone who has contributed.

Let us now tell you what is happening and how things stand at present. On Monday and Tuesday we went to Colleferro for the fourth time. Sonny, Irene and our vet Agnese Santi spent two intense days giving medical treatment to many emaciated horses and donkeys, medicating a mare left for days with a serious wound to her foot; isolating several pregnant mares ready to give birth; gathering together the more serious donkey cases; making sure the weaker foals were able to get to food, away from the more dominant animals; checking that all animals were present.

The dramatic figures of this operation reveal that of the 104 animals confiscated in the first phase, 99 remain alive, one still in the Perugia clinic. Shortly after the first evacuation (which began on 25 January) a foal and a mare died, while during the following days two donkeys sadly did not make it, due to the advanced stages of starvation and dehydration which they had endured for years. Yesterday morning a phone call from the Perugia clinic brought the news that the condition of one of the two foals excavated from the mud in a desperate state, had worsened and that he had gone into a coma. At this point he was euthanized and released from his suffering.

This news is devastating, and yet we know we have to fight on until all the animals are safe and until someone is made to pay for the cruelty they have suffered.

The transfer of the confiscated animals continues, but slowly, even counting the promise of the Corpo Forestale (Forestry Unit) in taking dozens of horses, and the pledge of the Donkey Sanctuary to transfer all the donkeys, mules and hinnies to their Sanctuary. We are doing our utmost to speed things up and also to challenge a rumour which, if true, is extremely disturbing: it seems that the authorities are considering giving some of the donkeys to a local farm which produces donkey milk, and to give some of the horses to local breeders – that is, to those same people who to date have shown themselves to be indifferent to this whole appalling business.

All this while the confiscated animals themselves are housed in rather insecure structures and moreover – inexplicably – neither supervised nor protected by the police, in spite of our having requested this many times over. It is now a matter of urgency to conclude this first phase so that rescue work can begin for the remaining dozens of animals still spread over the area with no food and no water: it is estimated that there are at least a further 50 equines and 30 cattle.

We are so enraged and upset about the many animal friends we arrived too late help and whose remains are scattered over the property of this person who for years has laid down the law to so many, who bowed their heads. Speaking to the people of this place, shocking stories emerge: such as when he was seen driving a car with a donkey tied to the back bumper…the poor creature was unable to keep up with the car and kept falling over, being then dragged along the asphalt road. The Colleferro case has rocked public opinion (unfortunately with less effect on the media) sparking a chain of solidarity without precedent. We ask all of you to keep up the pressure on the authorities to ensure that the animals are taken far away from that place, that no more animals are ever again allowed to fall into the hands of this person, and that all those responsible pay heavily for what they have done. We need a precedent in law which opens the door to truly effective animal welfare, and which prevents similar cases happening again.