Rules aimed at protecting animals' rights are praised by activists, but
can
the city really enforce them?

By Tracy Wilkinson
Times Staff Writer

November 9, 2005

ROME ­ In the greater animal kingdom, the plight of the little
goldfish is
especially harsh. The tiny creatures are scooped into plastic bags and
awarded at carnivals and fairs. They are confined to bowls where they
can
do nothing but swim around and around. Some (it has been claimed) go
blind.

No more. The municipal government of Rome has entered waters where few
city
halls dare tread. Under a new ordinance, the city's goldfish are
entitled
to a proper, full-sized aquarium, and they can no longer be given out
as
contest prizes.

The rules were drafted by the city of Rome's Office for Animal Rights.
The
59-point statute ordering better treatment for all pets, from cats and
dogs
to birds and lizards, was approved by the City Council last month and
will
go into effect today.

The unusually strict measure is winning plaudits from animal rights
activists, snarls from pet shop owners and puzzlement from all quarters

about whether it can be enforced. City officials, though, said it was
time
to take a stand.

"We needed to send a strong message: Pets are not objects," said
Cristina
Bedini, an 11-year veteran of the animal rights office. "We are saying
that
owning a pet is a joy, but it is also a duty. Responsible ownership is
the
only way to fight cruelty."

The fish-bowl rule may win Rome a humanitarian award from the Fish
Empathy
Project of PETA, the international animal rights group, People for the
Ethical Treatment of Animals.

"Rome has gone above and beyond anything we've seen anywhere else,"
spokeswoman Karin Robertson said in a telephone interview. For all
animals,
the Italian capital's new ordinance is more restrictive than anything
in
the United States, PETA said in a statement.

In addition to affording protection for fish, the measure requires dog
owners to walk their canines daily or face a $625 fine. It also bans
the
display of pets for sale in store windows, and gives legal recognition
to
Rome's famous gattare, the "cat ladies" who feed an army of strays.

Also forbidden: choke and electrical collars and, for dogs and cats,
declawing and the clipping of tails and ears for cosmetic reasons.

"Rome has taken a historic step for animal rights," said Gianluca
Felicetti, an activist with one of Italy's main animal-welfare
organizations. "It will help people to know that animals have a right
to
respect and to their ethological necessities."

Bedini and city officials met with police to discuss the ordinance and
how
to see that it is obeyed, and a team of street cops will undergo
specialized training to better understand the needs of animals. Even
police
officers frequently don't recognize animal abuse, Bedini said, and they

must be taught what constitutes mistreatment.

But Italy is a land of many laws and its own form of lawlessness. Can
police really know whether someone has given proper living quarters to
his
goldfish? And how can the frequency of dog-walking actually be
monitored?

"We have the most beautiful laws in the world, and nobody enforces
them,"
said Silvia Viviani, a retired opera soprano who co-founded the Torre
Argentina cat sanctuary, a home for some 250 strays. It is one of an
estimated 800 cat "colonies" in Rome that the new measure aims to
protect
by forbidding construction projects from displacing their feline
residents.

Despite her reservations about enforcement, Viviani praised the
statute.
She only wished it went further, to include mandatory sterilization of
cats
and dogs ­ something, she says, that is still resisted in Italy
because of
machismo.

Bedini said enforcement will rely more on education than police action.
To
catch fish-bowl violators, for example, "I don't think police will be
going
door to door."

Pet awareness is an evolving culture in Italy, she said, adding that
the
ordinance reflects a growing sensitivity among Roman citizens to the
plight
of their four-legged ­ and un-legged, finned, winged and otherwise
evolved
­ friends.

Bedini proudly notes that shelters here no longer euthanize animals. A
national law exists that criminalizes the abandoning of pets, and many
cities have their own animal-welfare regulations and officials to
enforce them.

Despite all this, many Italians who tire of pets will not hesitate to
dump
them on a roadside. Animal rights groups estimate that abandoned pets
in
Italy include 150,000 dogs and 200,000 cats.

Better care for goldfish, Bedini said, will require a change in
mentality.
Many parents like their children to play the carnival games that offer
pets
as prizes, which in turn teach them to care for living creatures. But
the
conditions are often less than desirable and the mortality rate high.

Enza Trapani, a manicurist and mother, knows the difficulties. She
bought a
goldfish for her 8-year-old son, Valerio, but it died after a couple of

weeks. A second one died after about six months. She gave up and now
has a
turtle and a cat.>>