Overview

• The reform caps a twenty-year campaign to overcome Italy’s anthropocentric legal framework and brings domestic animal welfare in line with EU directives
• It sets sentences of up to four years’ imprisonment and €60,000 fines for killing animals with cruelty and up to four years and €160,000 fines for organizing unauthorized animal fights
• The law prohibits chaining dogs, use of domestic cat fur, pretrial killing of seized or protected species and punishes puppy trafficking with four to eighteen months in prison, fines and permanent license revocation after repeat offenses
• Procedural safeguards ban the sale or killing of animals during legal proceedings, subject trafficking and fighting offenders to Anti-Mafia preventive measures and grant health-ministry-recognized associations the right to appeal seizures
• General Giorgio Maria Borrelli says the measures strengthen Carabinieri CITES’ capacity to investigate illicit trade and curb the exposure of minors to animal cruelty