La Spezia – The latest arrival at the La Spezia kennel yesterday is a hazelnut colored puppy, disoriented and alone, appeared out of nowhere in via Da Passano, in the city center. No one reported its loss, so it is thought it was abandoned. A few hours earlier, two little Maremma cross sisters entered, mangy and scared, found in a box in via Pecorina, in Sarzana. And a dachshund who wandered in the Boschetti, and who was rescued after being run over, fortunately without fatal consequences.
At the refuge in Via Del Monte, the only municipal structure in the province of La Spezia, there is an air of discouragement. The volunteers of Impronta, the non-profit that manages the kennel for the Municipality of La Spezia, are saddened. The reason: in recent years they had managed to reduce the number of dogs and cats welcomed into the shelter, which however is filling up again, little by little. The summer saw too many entries.
«We made a lot of effort to empty the cages – notes Pierandrea Fosella, one of the founders of L’Impronta – and in a few days we went back to the beginning again. In recent times there have been numerous refusals by people who have discovered that they no longer have space, that they have changed their mind, that they can no longer take care of their four-legged friend. And there have been repeated findings on the street. The numbers start to rise again, free places start to run out again, unless the welfare of the animals in care is sacrificed.”
It’s physiological to find some dogs on the street. It shouldn’t happen, but it does. Sometimes there is an owner who is looking for them. And so, when you find a lost dog on the street, you immediately check the microchip inserted under the skin to find the name of the person who adopted it. Just a couple of days ago, a mixed breed was returned, found wandering dangerously near the busy Spallanzani tunnel. However, if a dog is found in a cardboard box, and has no microchip, there is no hope. It is a clear case of voluntary abandonment.
Since several have been found, the fear is that the mechanism of relays from the south has started again, perhaps made in good faith by people who hope to help abandoned dogs. Just that they are not sustainable solutions.
«The findings of dogs without microchips have multiplied – confirms Fosella – especially in the Sarzana area. Our kennel welcomes dogs found in La Spezia and Sarzana. If the numbers spike, as is happening these days, it becomes a problem. Apart from the fact that these are movements outside the rules and the law, there is a fundamental error. Anyone who says that this way the dogs of the South will be better off doesn’t consider what’s behind it.”
It’s not a mystery. Often there are economic interests, behind the litters sent to the north. And the prospect of economic gain pushes us to give birth to more babies, often taken away from their mothers before their time. «The two puppies that unknown persons left in front of a veterinary clinic in Trinità, inside a box – explains the volunteer – seem to have fallen out of nowhere. How did they get there? Who brought them? They are scared, we don’t know if there were other puppies, we have no idea of the mother’s fate.”
The little ones have almost no fur. You can see bare skin. They probably had a problem that went untreated. They will make it, they will go up for adoption in mid-October, as soon as they have recovered. They were named Thelma and Louise, after the protagonists of the famous film.
The project of L’Impronta, supported by the Municipality of La Spezia, is to empty the kennel, using it as a stopping point aimed at a good adoption. «We plan a process of getting to know adopters and dogs – explains Fosella – we have a transparent website, with photos and videos of dogs and cats. We are also able to accommodate elderly dogs and do heartfelt adoptions. Then it rains dogs like this. If they really come from outside, as we fear, I point out that action must be taken at the source, where there is still widespread stray animals. We must act on the spot, sterilizing and raising awareness.”
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