On Subito.com they passed them off as Maine Coon, Siamese, Ragdoll, Turkish Angora, American Shorthair cats, but it was a scam
"Following the investigations which lasted for a few months useful to accumulate sufficient evidence to highlight the crimes, a search decree was requested from the Judicial Authority which authorized our Guards, in joint intervention with the Carabinieri, to access the interior of the seller's home. To further support the operation, two official veterinarians were made available by the Friuli Centrale University Health Authority (ASUFC) to promptly check the health of the animals held inside ”, writes OIPA Udine.
The subject, a well-known former breeder in the province of Udine and previously convicted of the crime of animal abuse, had 16 kittens, between one and a half months and about 3 months of age, some of which came from litters given as gifts and to in turn advertised online, locked up and divided into cages for rodents / rabbit hutches in terrifying sanitary conditions.
At their disposal putrid water and foul-smelling residues of food, while the bottoms of the cages were littered with dirty litter, urine and feces.
Furthermore, the constant confinement was compromising the correct psycho-motor development of the puppies, some of which also had bruises on the nose caused by the constant rubbing against the bars of the cage from which they were trying to get out.
Some of the kittens previously sold and reported by buyers are still undergoing therapy while most of them did not survive until a few days after purchase.
The small cats were criminally seized and taken to a protected facility to be visited and treated and obviously yet another complaint was filed for the crime of "Animal mistreatment" (art. 544ter CP) and "Detention of animals in conditions incompatible with their nature and productive of serious suffering "(art. 727 paragraph 2 of the Criminal Code).
At the moment, given the recidivist conduct of the seller in perpetrating the crime of mistreatment of animals, a crime for which he was at that time serving a final sentence under home detention, the competent authority revoked the benefit granted up to the end of the sentence by associating him with a prison house.
"Thanks to the support of the" Gli Amici di Poldo "Association which made shelters available for some kittens, placed them immediately under therapy and therefore they are now out of danger of life from a health point of view, it will now be possible to give them a dignified life, capable of making them forget the ordeal they have lived up to now. Now the little ones are only waiting for someone to welcome them lovingly in order to finally be able to allow these innocent souls to see the world beyond the irons of a cage ”, explains Edoardo Valentini, Provincial Coordinator of the OIPA Eco Zoofile Guard Unit in Udine.
The kittens will be entrusted to judicial custody and the following contact details must be contacted to obtain it:
- Association "Friends of Poldo": 3935379331
- Zoofile Guards OIPA Udine: 3314023500
Source: Oipa Udine
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