PESCARA. The investigation into the management of the municipal kennel and above all into an alleged series of cases of euthanasia of animals that had no problems, involving two managers of the Pescara Local Health Authority, has come to an end.
The prosecutor Giuseppe Bellelliwho is handling the matter, signed the notice of conclusion of the investigations in question Franco Ruggerias director of the animal health service, and his colleague Lucio Di Tommasoveterinarian of the same operational unit, as well as manager of the ASL health kennel in Pescara.
Ruggeri answers for abuse of office together with Di Tommaso, but it is the latter who bears the most disconcerting accusations regarding how the manager decided on the life or death of hospitalized animals. «As a veterinarian of the local health authority and director of the health kennel», writes the prosecutor, «he unnecessarily killed dog puppies by administering the drug “Tanax”». In addition to a litter, Di Tommaso also ordered the elimination of ten other dogs, again with the administration of “Tanax”. And the prosecutor lists the dogs one by one, the related procedure and the day of elimination: “subjected to euthanasia”, we read in the indictment, “without any health certification certifying the state of health of the dog which would justify its suppression” .
And then, again against Di Tommaso, the crime of forgery is contested, in relation to the fact that «in the monthly summaries from January 2020 to December 2022 of the services of the health kennel, he reported the presence of «colony cats» not included in the services of the kennel, falsely certifying the regularity and correctness of the service performed”. As for the abuse of office also alleged against Ruggeri, this is linked to the attempted suppression of a Czechoslovakian wolf: a dog that was taken from the home of the owner, who was also «a client of the “Saline Veterinary Clinic” attributable to Ruggeri», who «in satisfying his client’s request to proceed with the euthanasia of the aforementioned dog, gave the owner an unfair financial advantage consisting in the failure to pay the costs of capture, custody, maintenance and killing, however unjustified, of the animal”. Because the most disturbing issue is that that dog was in perfect health and managed to save himself thanks to the intervention of the president of the Pescara section of the National League for the Defense of Dogs, Paola Canonico who, aware of what was happening in the municipal health kennel, presented a detailed complaint that caused the case to explode.
From the investigations, an audio recording also emerged where the suppression of an entire litter and the euthanasia of that Czechoslovakian wolf were planned.
In the recording, where three entries, identified during the investigation, stand out, Di Tommaso allegedly instructed another veterinarian to eliminate those puppies with “Tanax”, a drug used for fatal injections. The kennel, however, was subjected to seizure by the investigating judge Giovanni de Rensis and in that provision, issued to “prevent the consequences of the crime from worsening and prolonging”, there were also statements from a key witness in the investigation who says: “I’ll start by saying that I was fed up and my heart was crying witnessing to continuous euthanasias which in my opinion were not due, through the administration of Tanax, to healthy dogs and carried out directly by Di Tommaso. These practices”, continues the employee of the facility, “as reported to me personally by di Tommaso, are carried out to free up places inside the boxes and to reduce management commitments and maintenance costs for the animals”.
Now the two suspects will have 20 days to make their requests.
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