Rescued puppies need a home...

Good luck Sabina, you are an angel.

You have done a wonderful thing for those puppies. Here is a link where you may be able to get some help www.dogwelcome.it Best wishes

Dont know where you are in Italy but here in Marche and elsewhere we have a very active facebook page which deals with re-homing animals, and we have had much success, can you pm me more details please.

Disgusting b*stards, what if you hadn't found them? Makes me so angry that people get away with this behaviour. I have rescued numerous animals since coming to Italy but once I consider it mine I have it spayed. My next door neighbour currently has 18 cats because she takes in other peoples, it's costing her a fortune but she says she has no choice. Can't imagine what would happen if she stopped looking after them..

In our village, Grottole in Basilicata, last summer there was a litter of 6 abandoned puppies at the bottom of the hill below our house. The mother dog was around, but the puppies were weaned- and starving. They were hiding in a cave, but the owner of the land had blocked it up so they were running around. I was feeding them, but the old woman who owned the land came banging at my door early one morning shouting imprecations and insults and telling me not to venture onto her land again. I told the vigile urbano about the puppies, and he said he would phone the nearest animal rescue centre, in Matera, 50 k away. Of course he did nothing. Then, just as we were driving out of the village to return to England, we came across one of the puppies lying dead in the road, obviously run over. I was distraught, and gave the vigile a good earful for not having taken action. I heard from a friend later that the puppies had all gone, but she didn't know where. The whole episode was very upsetting. I just hope the puppies were rescued and found homes. It made me despair about the Italian attitude to animals.

I have had so many heated discussions over the years...upset many an Italian I'm afraid about the way animals in general are cared for...there are the pampered pooches aka Paris Hilton accessory..and a large minority of good italian pet owners - but a huge majority that just don't bother. They won't spay / neuter because it's too expensive (some truth in that but...) or, my favourite, because it's against God and nature...although later abandoning the litter, drowning it, chucking it out with the rubbish (literally) or out the car in the middle of the motorway is apparently OK with HIM upstairs... How can they have St. Francis as their patron saint??? Many people never take their pets to the vet, have them vaccinated etc etc. At least once a month someone asks me (known as the English lady with dogs / who walks her dogs) if I want another dog...when I say no - because I can't afford it, they say but it's cheap to keep, it only eats scraps. No, I explain, its the possible vet fees....but you never have to take him / her to t he vet...he's a strong animal...They think I'm crazy to let the dogs have free run of the house - sit on the sofa, sleep on my bed (the germs!) and so it goes on. I once heard an Italian vet (yes, honestly) on RAI 1, talking about the right way to keep a pet, and amongst several silly things she said was "you must make sure you wash your hands with anti-bacterial soap" or an anti-bacterial wipe every time you touch him" and no, she wasn't talking about a dog with healthproblems!! Meantime, my "puppies" are growing like weeds and driving me crazy! Fun to watch but hard work!