Cats and dogs

How many?

• 8.8 million dogs and 10.2 million cats live in our homes (Assalco Report - Zoomark 2023).

Still plenty of animals do not have a family:

• Almost 70,000 dogs are locked up in kennels. Many were abandoned, mistreated or illegally traded.
• 600,000 dogs and more than 2.5 million cats roam the Italian streets, especially in southern regions, in search of food and shelter. Many were abandoned, abused, or illegally traded.

We are committed every day to the fight against violence and abuse and to the promotion of positive co-existence for all.

What we do

• We propose improving laws and amendments and oppose derogatory elements. At the local level, we work on regional laws and municipal regulations.
• We work on the social, health, economic and fiscal aspects that are essential to achieve an increasingly facilitated, fair and ethical coexistence with animals that are part of the family unit.
• The protection of free dogs and cats, the fight against abandonment and straying and the maximum punishment for mistreatment are battles we fight every day.

More precisely:

• We promote social and legislative changes that improve and facilitate coexistence with dogs and cats and combat phenomena such as abuse, abandonment, straying and puppy trafficking.
• We act at all institutional levels to obtain a coordinated and constant commitment from the government, regions, provinces, and municipalities.
• We intervene in favour of the conscious adoption of animals and support families who take in dogs and cats.
• With our legal department, we operate in the field of animal crime
• We educate people to have a proper relationshipwith cats and dogs by providing information, raising awareness and encouraging informed adoption.
• We work to promote social and legislative changes that improve and facilitate coexistence with dogs and cats and combat phenomena such as mistreatment, abandonment and straying.
• We want a reduction of VAT on food and veterinary expenses and an increase in the deduction for veterinary care from the tax return.
• We highlight the lack of green spaces where dogs can be taken for walks, the bans on animals in public places and the complications of going on holidays with animals in tow.
• We collaborate, in the area of social fragility ,with the Sant'Egidio Community and other organizations.
• We work to denounce inadequate implementation of the measures provided for in Law 281/91, such as:
  
  • microchipping,
  • registration in the dog and cats registry
  • better protection for animals and more effectively combat straying.
• We organize, in cooperation with local and national institutions, free microchipping initiatives .
• We work constantly so that kennels are not prisons for life , but temporary stalls. All animals, young or old, big or small, deserve a family.

Some of Our Achievements

Veterinary Medicines

From January 2024:

• It is now possible to buy a 'non-branded' veterinary medicine that is cheaper than the original, as is already the case for human medicines.
• It is now compulsory to inform the purchaser of the availability of a cheaper generic (a measure strongly advocated by us) drug.
• The so-called "blistering" is now allowed, i.e. the possibility for the veterinary surgeon and the pharmacist to give away the amount of medicine sufficient for the therapy and not the whole box, to save money and to protect animal health by reducing the risk of surplus veterinary medicines being used later for "do-it-yourself" treatments.
• Leftover veterinary medicines for the treatment of dogs and cats can be used to help many animals without families who need drug therapies. A previously banned practice is now allowed so that unused veterinary medicines can be given to the veterinarian in charge of kennels and catteries that are authorised to hold stocks of medicines.
  

In 2021, as a result of the LAV #curiamolitutti campaign, we had obtained the possibility for the vet to prescribe a cheaper human medicine, with the same active ingredient as the veterinary medicine, for the treatment of our four-legged friends. Unfortunately, the new veterinary regulation (2024) has unfortunately not confirmed this possibility.

Deduction of veterinary expenses
Thanks to our efforts, after 20 years in which the ceiling was set at 387.34 euros, the Finance Acts of 2020 and 2021 have increased it from around 160 euros to 550 euros.

Find out more (in Italian)

What can you do

• Register and identify your animal friend via the microchip.
• If you witness an abandonment, report the offenders to the police, also collecting all the elements to identify the perpetrators (licence plate number, etc.).
• Adopt a dog or cat from a kennel or a similar structure and follow our tips for responsible and conscious adoption, read more here.

FOCUS: Our Social Veterinary Centre

We collaborate in supporting the care of family pets of people helped by the "Viva gli Anziani'. The innovative service of the Community of Sant'Egidio is based on the creation of support networks that complement the traditional forms of home and residential care.

To date, the programme assists more than 28,000 elderly people, of whom more than 6,400 in Rome.

We want to protect as much as possible the valuable relationship between dogs and cats and people in fragile situations, including economic ones.

Supporting families and people with animals is essential to prevent abandonment, mistreatment and straying.

For this reason, we are creating a social veterinary centre at our national headquarters in Rome.

The aim is to create a place of first assistance for animals living with people in need.

Stay tuned!