Those responsible for the cruel killing of a wolf, which took place in Coriano in 2017, have plea-bargained their respective custodial sentences.
In our country the range of the Apennine wolf (Canis lupus italicus) is fortunately expanding, but this particularly protected species still has to contend with an atavistic and unjustified hatred today. The number of wolves killed by poachers — with firearms, poisoned bait, traps and snares — remains high.
Read also: Wolf killed and hung in the Rimini area: those responsible arrested
The majority of those who commit these cowardly and illegal acts go unpunished, above all because of the difficulty of identifying those responsible. This is not the case, however, for the three individuals who, in 2017, tortured and killed a wolf, then hung its body from the shelter of a bus stop in the municipality of Coriano (Rimini). The three culprits were identified last year by the Carabinieri forestali of Rimini, in collaboration with the Nucleo investigativo di polizia ambientale agroalimentare e forestale (Nipaaf), and have now finally been convicted.
The preliminary hearing took place on 20 November, during which the three defendants — charged with killing animals, hunting theft and unlawful slaughter — applied for a plea bargain. They were sentenced, respectively, to one year and six months, one year, and nine months in prison.
The animal rights association Lav, which had joined the proceedings as a civil party, welcomed the ruling, even though it had hoped for harsher sentences for those guilty of such a violent and gratuitous act. "We welcome the outcome of this hearing with partial satisfaction," commented Massimo Vitturi, Lav's head of Wild Animals, "because, while on the one hand the request for a plea bargain confirms the defendants' responsibility, on the other, the extent of the sentences is minimal, particularly for offences of this gravity, also in light of the need to send a firm message against any possible imitation."
The convictions, albeit lenient, nonetheless represent an important signal and constitute — as the Centro di educazione ambientale e alla sostenibilità (Ceas) dell'Ente di gestione per i parchi e la biodiversità della Romagna highlighted on its Facebook page — the first case in Italy of a conviction for offences of this magnitude relating to wolf conservation.