You say Balto and you think of the elderly labrador whose death on 19 August 2020 triggered the investigation that brought the well-known veterinarian Mauro Guerra to trial. However, this is the trend that had brought in two excellent names from Ravenna: that of the then director of the prison, Carmela De Lorenzo. And of her husband, the Revenue official Francesco Vasta. The prosecutor’s office had requested two sentences at the end of the summary procedure: two acquittals pronounced by the preliminary hearing judge Corrado Schiaretti. “Because the fact does not exist” for the disputed mistreatment of Balto. And “because the fact does not constitute a crime” for the unjustified killing of the animal in competition with Guerra.
“What is perplexing from the outset – underlined the judge in the reasons for the sentence just filed – is that the local police, on the basis of the elements indicated”, had recognized “the physical and ethological conditions of serious discomfort and suffering” of the animal, the crimes of mistreatment and abandonment. But “on closer inspection – continued the preliminary hearing judge -, none of the elements collected up to that moment allowed us to believe that there was news of a crime”. It all started with the report of an assistant chief who, free from duty, had come across that dog with “strongly slow barks” around 1.25pm. His owners were out of the region and had entrusted him to a neighbor. Of course, “an intervention driven by an understandable and shareable sense of pity for poor Balto” who appeared malnourished and covered in flies: but there were no “legal bases to consider the fact of criminal relevance”.
On this point, the judge, as also cited in the defense brief (lawyer Ermanno Cicognani) valued the statements made by the veterinarian, “therefore a qualified professional and certainly a third party”, who had observed Balto that 19 August: Valerio Gambi of the ASL: ” In his opinion the dog had had heat stroke – 15 years and 8 months – it was normal for him to be dehydrated.” As for flies on them, “it’s common for older dogs: they have particular odors that attract them.” He also added that “a Labrador of that age is already a record: they have an average age of 12”. But “he had not shared any of the choices made by his colleague Guerra: if entrusted to him, he would have visited him and tried to rehydrate him”.
The judge then examined the testimonies of the neighbors deducing in several cases “the approximate nature to say the least as well as the distortion of the facts caused by what was reported”. “Feelings of antipathy and aversion” towards the two often had an influence, “responsible for being arrogant and ‘asserting their position'”. As if to say only “neighborhood problems” and not criminal ones. An entire section was reserved for the prosecution’s consultant, the veterinarian Enrico Moriconi: his, “a small treatise on dog ethology that is exhaustive, complete and at times fascinating” but with “obvious limitations”. See a “one-sided uncritical reading of the elements”. as well as the inability to know how to “decline them from a legal point of view”.
And even for the killing of the animal, “it is difficult to formulate even a single suspicion about possible responsibilities” of the accused, “and even less of her husband” who was in Rome for work. She “found herself deciding from 500 kilometers away” (she was in Avellino visiting sick relatives) “about the fate of her labrador” whose “dramatic and irreversible conditions were described by her trusted veterinarian”.
The situation is different for Guerra, who “was not entitled to proceed with any euthanasia”. In his statements, “self-defensive and full of falsehoods regarding the investigations carried out on Balto”, there were “some false information and some true”. In summary “he never gave Balto a clinical examination, he knew the dog well and had been his vet: something which he then clumsily tried to deny for fiscal reasons”. In all of this, “the accusatory thesis unconsciously suffers from a thought based on a prejudice” derived from the fact that “after the first phases of the investigation, it emerged that Guerra ran a completely inadequate clinic; he practiced euthanasia according to his illegitimate or even illicit, probably at times at the simple request of the owners and declared that he was administering vaccines and therapies that he did not administer”. Lastly he was described as a “lavish tax evader: so much so that 620 thousand euros were seized from him” against “2,000-3,000 invoices issued per year”. Issues on which Guerra is now being debated after having himself requested an immediate judgement.
Andrea Colombari
