REPORT
ON THE PETS OF ITALY
By
Steve Dale
Positano
and Roma, Italy. Enjoying a typical multi-course Italian dinner,
there's plenty to share at Da Vincenzo restaurante in the Mediterranean
coastal town Positano, along what some refer to as the Italian
Riviera. Phillippe has learned how to rip off the tourists. He'll
sit beside your leg, maybe even rub up against it, and then look
at you with those eyes, which are bluer than the famous blue water
cave (grotta azzura) in Capri. Looking darn cute usually works;
diners gladly offer some of the best seafood in the world to this
black and white kitty. If plan 'A' fails, Phillippe thinks nothing
of jumping into a lap of a heard-hearted tourist, and he purr
until he gets results. "All right there, here's calamari," Mark
Tangor of London, England grumbles, as his wife Gloria giggles,
"He's so cute - but Mark that's half your appetizer."
Phillipe
doesn't have a real home; he's never indoors except when he sneaks
into the kitchen. Still, his life isn't so bad. The restaurant's
management makes certain he appears in good physical health; otherwise
they hurry him to the vet office. And Phillipe dines on haute
cuisine cats in America can only fantasize.
Life
isn't quite so good for the plethora of street cats in Rome, Venice
and other major Italian cities. Like street cats all over the
world, they're riddled by disease, and they're prone to being
killed by cars as well stray dogs, which there are no shortage
of.
Dr.
Luca Tosti Croce, a veterinarian in Rome says trap/alter/release
programs are being conducted in the Piazza's (city squares) in
major cities. The programs are patterned after similar efforts
in America. Except in Italy, the government financially supports
these programs.
The
results are mixed. Piazza Argentina is a world renowned success
story. Julius Caesar was murdered at this place in 44 BC, and
centuries later, the great Italian film star Anna Magnani began
feeding strays on her breaks from nearby Teatro Argentina. Today,
approximately 8000 people visit the sanctuary annually, including
legions of international volunteers who generously contribute
to the care of the 250 resident cats, who are well fed, doted
on by tourists, and provided with the best veterinary care.
However,
at the many other piazzas in Rome, and along the narrow streets
leading to them, stray cats and also stray dogs remain abundant.
Strays also live among the historic ruins throughout the city.
Many of these animals are fairly well-fed, offered supplements
to their diet of rodents and garbage by well meaning residents;
however most are have not been trapped and spayed or neutered.
Many of these dogs and cats carry everything from fleas to feline
leukemia. For the most part, the stray dogs and stray cats are
not rounded up and placed in shelters as they are in America.
Tosti Croce says says, "They live long enough to reproduce, though
they usually die at early ages."
Tosti
Croce points to a golden retriever named Alto who walks freely
around the enclosed garden at the Hotel Santa Maria in Rome. Alto
belongs to the owners of the hotel. Whenever he's taken beyond
the hotel, he's on a leash. He's one of the seven million companion
animals in Italy (split evenly among cats and dogs). "These pets
live in the house, and they're treated like pets in America,"
he adds.
Well,
almost like pets in America. In Positano, Dr. Augusta Cuomo begins
to laugh when he's told that (according to the 1999-2000 American
Animal Hospital Association's Annual Pet Owner Survey) 46 per
cent of pet owners in the U.S. share their beds with their four
legged companions. He can't believe it. "This can not really be,"
he says. "Anyone who does this (in Italy) would be a crazy person
- we don't sleep with dogs and cats."
Cuomo
is sipping on wine on the terrace of La Fenice, a bed and breakfast.
Translating for Cuomo is Costantino Mandara, the owner of La Fenice
and a one time student in veterinary school. His menagerie includes
two cats, a collie, a mynah bird, three geese and five African
pygmy goats.
Mandara
feels the need to say, "I do not sleep with my pets."
They
may not share their beds, but they are cared for as members of
the family. Tosti Croce says the number of dogs and cats as indoor
pets and grown 200 per cent over the past ten years throughout
Italy. Indoor cats are mostly altered. In big cities, cars and
other outside threats have forced owners to take cats indoors.
However, one reason people who live in the countryside and in
smaller towns such as Positano won't bring cats indoors is their
reluctance to alter them, especially the males. In fact, male
dogs are only neutered if there's a medical need. "If it is castrated
it is not quite the dog it should be," Cuomo says.
Cuomo
feels Americans spay and neuter pets too early, and that's one
big reason why America has so many overweight pets. He's right;
40 to 60 per cent of dogs and cats in America could use a weight
watcher's plan. The number of overweight pets in Italy is less
than half what it is in the U.S.
According
to American veterinarians, what makes pets in the U.S. tubby has
nothing to do with early spay/neuter, but everything to do with
overfeeding, table snacks and a lack of exercise.
Dogs
and cats in Italy aren't altered until at least ten months, often
allowing females (especially dogs) to cycle at least once before
being altered.
American
veterinarians note this increases the risk of ovarian cancer and
unwanted litters.
"I
believe the differences in opinion are based on differences in
cultures," Tosti Croce says.
In
Italy mixed breed dogs do outnumber pure breds, but pure bred
dogs are trendy and increasingly in numbers. The most popular
breeds include golden and Labrador retrievers, beagles, German
shepherd dogs and dachshunds. And just as in America, trends are
often based on dogs seen in the media. One commercial for a popular
toilet paper, features a Lab puppy: The message is that if the
product soft enough for this puppy's behind, it's soft enough
for yours. "Not only do they sell toilet paper, they sell Labrador
puppies," Cuomo says.
