Rome mandates walkies

luckat

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-1845136,00.html

It's walkies or else, as Rome dogs exercise their rights
From Richard Owen in Rome

IF YOU have a tendency to ignore your dog’s obvious longing for a walk, think yourself lucky that you’re not in Rome. From now on the city’s dog-owners not only have to take their pets for regular walks but also will be fined if they don’t.

The Italians are not noted for keeping pets. However, a new Rome city bylaw aimed at protecting domestic animals includes not only the dog-walking regulation but also a ban on keeping goldfish in bowls — described as “cruel” — and on docking pets’ tails and ears. Officials said that the goldfish bowl ban had been imposed because the bowls provided insufficient oxygen and could make the fish go blind.

Offenders face fines of between €50 and €500 (£34 and £340). Other offences under the new rules include keeping pets locked in cars in hot weather — in Rome that can be very hot indeed — or in shop windows. Also out are trimming cats’ claws for aesthetic purposes, making pets wear electric or choke collars and offering animals, including goldfish in plastic bags , as prizes at fairgrounds. In addition, kittens and puppies may not be separated from their mothers before they are two months old.

Monica Cirinna, the city councillor responsible for animal welfare, said: “The civilisation of a city can be measured by the way it looks after its pets. It is good to do whatever we can for our pets, who fill our existence with their attention in exchange for a little love.”

There are about 150,000 dogs and 300,000 cats in Roman households, as well as 72 species of caged bird and an unknown number of reptiles and amphibians. Rome has also many stray cats, which live among the city’s ruins and even feature on picture postcards and calendars.

After years of campaigning by cat lovers, a sanctuary for strays has been set up in the ruins of Roman temples in Largo di Torre Argentina, a central square. The new regulations finally acknowledge the role of the gattare (cat ladies), who feed and care for colonies of stray cats.

The city council’s Animal Rights Office said that it would recruit new staff to work alongside the municipal police, although some fear that that will encourage people to snoop on their neighbours.

Residents of Rome, however, appeared to take the new rules in their stride yesterday. “I exercise my dog regularly anyway,” said a woman walking her labrador on the Tiber embankment.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said that it was particularly impressed by the goldfish bowl ban, which meant that Rome had “gone further protecting fish than anywhere else in the world”.

Sigma Force

Isn't the city of Rome rife with feral cats? I'll find out in Feb as Im heading over there:D can't wait!!

Could you imagine trying to pass the same law in Ireland:rolleyes:

Nala

I'd love if the same law was passed in Ireland.

Shewhomustbe...

This is absolutely fantastic
Hopefully all governments, or better still the EU Parliament, will be paying attention to this so that it won't be long before they bring in legislation to start doing exactly the same thing. Should include keeping cats indoors and only being allowed out on leads. Totally agree with goldfish not being kept in bowls, our three guys are in a www.bi-orb.com

luckat

Sure we're great at passing laws in Ireland. We disapprove of something, we immediately pass a law against it and spend millions on scolding TV and radio ads that annoy the hell out of people!

Our only problem is actually *enforcing* these laws. Or making it convenient for people to keep them - for instance, one of my neighbouring streets has a big fierce notice about dog poo - in Irish, no less - *but there are no litterbins whatsoever for about 100 yards from it!

aare

Sorry, but to my mind the dog walking aspect of this law is just invasive lunacy.

I have been taught, and have come to believe, that dogs get far more, far better exercise playing together in a garden than being walked on a leash. We humans simply do not have the stamina or speed to meet their real exercise needs.

As long as they have someone or another dog to play with and a garden to play in, a walk on a leash is an unnnecessary formality.

There is another factor though.

When you take a dog for a walk on a leash you are actually showing him a world to escape to and explore if he gets the chance.

Which is part of how strays are made.

Having said that, I do realise that there are probably precious few private gardens in the middle of Rome, like Paris, and perhaps, like Paris, a great many dogs.

Personally I believe that it isn't fair to keep a dog in a town apartment unless he is pretty small and you are prepared to walk him, and even THEN it isn't really ideal.

I like the ban on goldfish bowls and goldfish in bags, or as prizes, that ALWAYS seemed wrong to me.

I suspect that when a cat's claws are trimmed for "aesthetic reasons" the "aesthetics" may relate more to the furniture than the cat?