The question of the appointment of the Campania Animal Rights Guarantor will arrive on the table of State Council. He announces this to Kodami Stella Cervasiojournalist and activist, who contests the “superficiality” of the Regional Council for issues concerning animals.
Recently the Campania TAR rejected the appeal presented by Cervasio against the decree with which the President of the Regional Council had appointed the veterinarian Giovanni Ferrara. According to the journalist and president of the APS association Animal Day Naples «There are inadequacies in the method of appointing animal rights guarantors at all levels and in all bodies».
The activist, who until 2021 held the position of Animal Rights Guarantor for the Municipality of Naples, explains: «I decided to present an appeal that was not directed at the person who holds the position, who turned to me on several occasions in my role as Guarantor in past years, always finding understanding and acceptance. Rather, I question and I always will, until things change, first and foremost the low value given to those who hold these positionsmotivated by the fact that in politics animals are equated with things, and not with living and sentient beings.”
That of the Animal Guarantor is a long-awaited appointment in Campania. The first notice was published in 2019, in 2022 the deadlines for the presentation of new applications were assigned, and it is in this second round that Ferrara returned. However, the appointment was waited until October 2023 when the Campania councilors chose Ferrara with 30 votes out of 45. By number of votes they followed Vincenzo Desidery of Anpana Fmc, and Cervasio itself. The latter’s candidacy was supported by some of the most active associations in the area for the protection of animals and the environment including: Horse Angels, Asoim, Ardea, Gea and Lipu.
In addition to the prolonged time, Cervasio in his appeal to the TAR had also raised the issue of conflict of interest. The Guarantor in office is in fact a veterinary doctormanager of the Dog’s Town kennel in Pignataro Maggiore, in the Caserta area, and among the various activities carries out public services for the management of stray animals on behalf of some municipal administrations and local health authorities.
«I stigmatize and I will do so until I am heard, the latent conflict of interests between those who should protect animal rights as a third and independent authority while carrying out a paid work activity controlled by the same body that, as Guarantor, should control – underlines the activist – This applies not only to those registered in the register of veterinary doctors, but, even more so, to those who keep dogs as a professional activity paid by the same body that not only appoints them but which, I repeat the concept, should itself control ».
The journalist does not intend to stop at the ruling of the Administrative Court and intends to appeal to other courts: «The TAR ruling which rejected the appeal essentially argued that the secrecy of the vote made the latest appointment of regional guarantor “legitimate”. As if it were allowed for a political body such as the Regional Council, subject to the logic of contingent majorities, to appoint anyone regardless of any requirement. On the merits, not a word from the Campania Regional Administrative Court. We will go further, in search, only for the animals and nothing else, of a ‘judge in Berlin’.”
