The spread of the new coronavirus is also causing a number of difficulties for our four-legged friends. Here is a complete guide to navigating the rules to follow, including how to help prevent a further rise in abandonments.
The coronavirus emergency has also struck the animal world, and the first to feel its effects are the four-legged friends who live with us. New rules and various directives now apply even for something as simple as taking a dog for a walk, and different regulations must be followed if a pet needs to visit the vet, get vaccinated, or carry out other activities that until recently were perfectly normal.
Gaia animali & ambiente, an association at the forefront of animal rights advocacy, has drawn up a comprehensive and detailed vademecum containing all the relevant guidance, with the valuable contribution of Gaia lex (the association's legal action centre) and lawyers Manuela Giacomini, Erika Del Bianco, Simona Santoni and Francesca Bettocchi. The vademecum examines all the latest decrees issued by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers and the Ministry of Health on the subject of coronavirus, and presents everything one needs to know in a clear and accessible manner.
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The coronavirus emergency has also created a number of difficulties for people who live with a companion animal or who care for colonies of stray cats that populate our urban areas. "It is a difficult time for everyone, but to prevent it from becoming even more dangerous for the most vulnerable, it is important to act with promptness. The various local branches of Gaia animali & ambiente are working hard, both to continue caring for cats in feline colonies and to help — during this very particular period — all those who have an animal at home," explains Edgar Meyer, president of Gaia animali & ambiente.
Worthy of mention in this regard is the initiative of the Gaia branch of Opera e Locate, in the province of Milan, one of the cities hardest hit by the virus emergency: Emanuela Pagliara, the association's branch coordinator, and a number of volunteers are making themselves available to help with the sourcing of food and/or medicines for four-legged friends in the area.
But what are the most pressing problems currently emerging on the animal welfare horizon during this delicate moment? "Municipalities, regions and the state must continue their public information campaigns and keep explaining that domestic animals not only pose absolutely no danger, but are incomparable healers," replies Meyer. "We have sent our vademecum to several municipalities for them to use and share. Precisely because the animals that live with us act as 'soul healers', municipalities, once the emergency is over, will need to redouble their efforts in adoption campaigns for dogs and cats from municipal shelters. Animals, municipal coffers and many people — both psychologically and physically — will all benefit."
Having a dog or a cat at home can only bring psychological relief in moments of collective stress such as the current one. Not to mention that even a simple daily walk with one's dog can help the body feel better and stay healthy. "Physical exercise, even if limited to going out with one's dog, can strengthen the immune defences and contribute to cardiovascular health. And in the time of the coronavirus emergency, nothing is more important than the health of the bronchi and lungs in fighting the disease," explains Dr Renata Daniele, pulmonologist and cardiologist.
"Anyone who owns a dog can certainly take it outside to do its business; however, it is absolutely necessary to remain within one's own municipality and to limit the walk to areas close to one's home," Meyer clarifies. "If you go to the park, it is advisable to maintain a safe distance of at least one metre from other people. I would also remind everyone that gatherings are prohibited under any circumstances."
As regards volunteers at dog or cat shelters and people who look after feline colonies, in this case too, given the needs of animals that must receive daily and constant care, it is possible to continue carrying out voluntary work. It is nonetheless essential to carry a self-certification form, indicating among the stated reasons justifying one's movement a "situation of necessity" and specifying that one is travelling to a dog shelter, cat shelter, colony or wildlife recovery centre.
The coronavirus emergency risks leading to a rise in abandonments and therefore in stray animals across the country. Research by Aidaa (Associazione italiana difesa animali e ambiente) reveals a discouraging figure. In the hundred dog shelters monitored by the association, from 20 February to 8 March 2020, almost two thousand more dogs were admitted compared to the same period last year, at an average of over a hundred dogs per day. In almost every case, those who brought the animals to the shelter stated they were no longer able to manage them because of the coronavirus, or in any event for health reasons — not of the dogs, but of their owners.
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The overall figure for abandonments increased by approximately 30 percentage points compared to the same period last year, rising from seven thousand to around nine thousand new shelter admissions in twenty days. This is an extremely alarming figure if the trend were to remain unchanged. "What is causing great concern is the near-total standstill in adoptions. Those at shelters have practically ground to a halt across the whole of Italy," warns Meyer. All of this has occurred as a consequence of the ban on leaving one's home, in compliance with the ministerial provisions for containing the epidemic.
"When this is all over, it will therefore be necessary to launch powerful awareness campaigns on adoption in order to help dogs and other animals after this period," the expert concludes. It is to be hoped, in any case, that the emergency of these days will help everyone to become more aware that the environment around us and animals are fundamental to our very survival. And that bringing the pandemic under control will help states to establish new and more effective environmental protection regulations for the ecosystem.