TERAMO – During the month of March, the municipalities of Atri and Torricella Sicura were the scene of reprehensible and wicked behaviors to the detriment of animals.
In particular, in the municipality of Torricella Sicura a dog was killed by its owner by hanging, while a cat was found wounded in the head by an arrow shot from a bow or crossbow.
Both circumstances led the Forest Carabinieri of the local Stations to inform the Public Prosecutor at the Court of Teramo for the crimes of killing and injury to animals.
The dog, a Maremma shepherd breed, would seem to have caused annoyance to some passers-by, because it was left free to roam uncontrolled; consequently the latter would have complained to the owner who, to eliminate the problem, would have solved the matter with extreme cruelty by hanging the animal from a tractor.
The cat, on the other hand, part of a feline colony cared for by a local resident, was subject to target practice: a dart, about 41 cm long, shot from a bow or more likely from a crossbow, drew the animal in the upper left part of the head, at the base of the ear, causing him great suffering.
A reporting resident lovingly took care of the poor animal by transporting it to the Veterinary Clinic of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of Teramo. A stab wound was diagnosed in the facility. Fortunately, the cat is now in better conditions and will soon be able to return to the feline colony of origin.
The Forest Carabinieri, coordinated by the Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Court of Teramo, are shedding light on both episodes.
For the episode that involved the poor dog, one person has already been entered in the register of suspects, while for the cat affair the Carabinieri Forestali are carrying out investigations, also regarding the origin of the seized dart, in order to trace the culprit of the ‘execrating gesture made for mere brutality.
The Commander of the Carabinieri Forestry Group of Teramo recalls that all the prevention and repression of crimes committed against animals, whether domestic or wild, are assigned as a priority to the Forestry specialty and that this role assumes even greater importance today in light of the provisions recently introduced by art. 9 of our Constitution which recognizes animals the highest level of protection of the legal system.
The mistreatment of animals, their killing, abandonment and detention incompatible with their ethological characteristics are behaviors that are born and evolve with man, prohibited and severely punished by our Penal Code.
Unfortunately, the relationships between man and other animal species are also expressed through deviant and cruel behavior towards animals, which can represent signs of a lack of ethical and/or moral inhibitory brakes on the part of the person who performs them and therefore heralds of a potential antisocial behavior of the same, thus becoming a premonitory element of a subsequent violent structure of the individual and, when committed by minors, acute symptoms of pathological family situations.
