We recently stayed at a beautiful villa located in between the towns of Barberino Val d'Elsa and Certaldo in one of the prettiest corners of the Chianti region in Tuscany. We loved the awesome views, the historic sights and the unparalleled food and wine of the area. However, one night we were disturbed by the sound of barking dogs coming across from the opposite hill to where we were staying.
The following morning we decided to investigate the source of the barking, in particular because we thought that the barks sounded distressed and we wanted to ensure that a dog had not been injured or caught in a trap. What we found completely shocked us and prompted me to write this article.
To search for the source of the barks we walked past a few farmhouses. At the first farmhouse a dog started to run towards us, barking aggressively, but it stopped when its owner called it. We stopped to talk to the owner and asked him if he knew where the barking dog or dogs were kept. He clearly looked uncomfortable about our questioning, shrugged his shoulders and said that his dog was well behaved and did not bark at night because he did not tie him like many of his neighbours. We asked him why other people did that and his response was that the area was full of wildlife and if not the dogs would get excited each time a wild animal passed by.
We decided to knock on the door of few other farmhouses to find out where these dogs were kept. The response that we got from the next two people was very guarded, they looked at us with suspicion and it was clear that they were hiding something because they said that they did not know of any dogs in the area (which obviously was a lie). As we were walking down the hill, we noticed that a man had started to follow us. We stopped until he reached us and he said that he did not want to be seen talking to us in front of his neighbours but that he was also fed up with the continuous barking of dogs and wanted us to contact the Carabinieri and ENPA (Italian animal protection society). This man actually pointed out to us the places where the dogs were kept and the shocking conditions that these poor creatures had to endure. They included:
1) A metal cage of no more than 3 meters by 3 meters where 4 dogs were kept in extremely hot and unpleasant conditions. We actually met the owner because he had come to feed the dogs. When we confronted him, he said that he used his dogs for finding truffles and that during the months of February to July when hunting was banned, he had no option but to cage his animals. He said that he came there once a day to feed the animals and let them out of the cage for a run around the small piece of land before he locked them up again for another day.
2) A wire cage in the back of a carpenter's workshop where a hound had hardly enough space to turn around. Again the owner said that he took the dog out during the hunting season and at other times the dog was 'content' to be locked up.
3) A farmhouse where 3 dogs were tied up in the back yard. The owner lived in the town of Certaldo and came there once a day to just feed and water the dogs and would then go away again. We found the name of the owner in the telephone directory and when we contacted him about the cruelty that he was imposing on his animals he told us that it was nothing to do with us and put the phone down.
We decided to contact ENPA in Florence. They were receptive when we expressed our horror about what we had seen and they asked us to send them an email with the details of the location of the dogs and promised to send an inspector to investigate.
When we discussed this with our Italian friends, we all came to the conclusion that the owners are necessarily bad people but are ignorant about animal welfare and treat their dogs the way generations before them have done. The best way to put a stop to this widespread cruelty is to kill the demand for their catch (be it game or truffles). In places like Tuscany most restaurants offer traditional dishes that include ingredients which have been caught in the wild. We recommend that tourists who care about animal welfare should avoid eating any dish which involves using a hunting dog and that they should make a point of this with the restaurant owner. The foods that we recommend that you should avoid include:Cervo - stagCapriolo - roe deerCingiale - boarFagiano - pheasantConiglio - wild rabbitTartufo - trufflesOr any other dish where you suspect that hunting dogs were involved.
I believe that pressure will soon build up on the hunters to treat their dogs in a more humane way or otherwise there will not be a demand for their catch. We have heard that already a group of hunters have got together and have jointly bought a large piece of land where they have set up proper kennel facilities for their hunting dogs. This needs to become a standard practice across Tuscany and Italy.
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