Manduria: Ordinance on wolves, animal rights activists: "coexistence and more care for stray animals"

Gatti

Mandurian animal rights activists and activists, Francesco Di Lauro and Ines Tripaldi, criticize the recent ordinance on wolves signed by the mayor of Manduria Gregorio Pecoraro as they had done for the one issued by the mayor of Maruggio Alfredo Longo.

The two ordinances dictate advice on how to defend oneself from wolf attacks (in Maruggio there was one, documented by a video, against a domestic dog), with calls for prudence and advice on how to prevent attacks, calls to keep animals at home at night, not to leave food for dogs and cats outdoors and to equip themselves with electrified fences.

«Wolves – declares the lawyer Di Lauro (who oversaw the civil part of the WWF in the Ilva pollution trial “Ambiente sello” – are a super-protected species by Italian laws and their killing carries penalties of up to three years prison”. Having clarified this, the lawyer invites us to coexist with this species “as already happens in other regions such as Abruzzo”.

The animal rights activist explains his ideas on the matter. «Given that we cannot kill it, we must learn to defend ourselves from a predator doing its job, but without useless alarmism because the wolf does not attack humans except in very particular cases (in Italy perhaps one or two episodes have been recorded) and only when he is cornered.”

By insisting on mutual coexistence, the president of Azzurro Ionio suggests the useful side of the presence of wolves. «We complain about the presence of wild boars which sooner or later will also arrive in these parts, it is right to know that their most fearsome predators are precisely the wolves».

Ines Tripaldi, representative of Anpana, the National Association for the Protection of Animals, Nature and the Environment, also has something to say about the anti-wolf ordinance, which is against the ban imposed by the mayors on leaving food for stray dogs and cats lying around. «So what do we do? Are they being made to die of hunger and hardship while the wolves would still have enough to feed themselves by eating stray dogs and cats who are also weakened by hunger?”

The well-known Mandurian cat lady who takes care of some cat colonies in the area opens the controversy with the mayor. “In the same way that the mayor invites citizens to make their pets safe,” says Tripaldi, “he should equally worry about creating a shelter that doesn’t exist.”

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