A shameful record crowns Italy, along with France, as a leader in Europe in the trade and breeding of tigers, with an estimate of about 85% of the existing big cats in the old continent.
The following video, taken from footage we received anonymously, shows a system legitimised by current legislation, but no less despicable.
We consider it unacceptable that any animal and in particular an endangered species protected by international standards could be sold or transferred like any object, or forced to spend an entire existence in a cramped, mobile cage.
LAV had dealt with big cats already in 2019: ten tigers were transported from a facility in Latina to the border between Poland and Belarus.
We immediately contacted the Dutch Association AAP, which decided to start an animal recovery operation. Poznan Zoo was able to take only four of them, so, AAP stepped in to move the remaining five tigers (Softi, Toph, Aqua, Merida, and Sanson) to their Primadomus rescue center located in Villena (Spain). The tigers are fully recovering, thanks to the relevant work managed by AAP's animal keepers and team managers.
This business of big cats is perfectly described by the images in our possession: the owner of the tigers and holder of the famous license explains in detail how easy it is, thanks to the current legislation, to “park” mobile cages with tigers inside on the land of owners interested in exhibiting them for a few months.
Whether they are banned animals or not, of any species and kingdom, the idea is always the same: how can it still be tolerated that living beings are considered collectors’ items? Merchandise?
By 8 May, the Government is called to approve the Draft Legislative Decree to adapt the national legislation to the provisions of European Regulation 2016/429 on transmissible animal diseases providing, as established by article 14 letter q) of European Delegation Law no. 53 of 22 April 2021, some important changes including the prohibition of import, possession and reproduction of wild and exotic animals. The article was provided for thanks to a parliamentary amendment, approved with the Government’s favourable opinion, for the prevention of further zoonoses and pandemics such as Covid 19, and previously Sars, Mers, avian influenza, and Ebola, as well as offering animal protection, today a principle reinforced by the provision of the new article 9 of the Constitution.
Hence, we ask the Ministers of Health Speranza, of Ecological Transition Cingolani, and the Undersecretary of European Affairs Amendola, to implement the Delegation Law and put an end to this unnecessary suffering!