Abstract
Law no. 281, enacted by the Italian Parliament in 1991, was the first that aimed at managing urban free-roaming cats living in colonies, without killing and/or moving them from their site. It had been anticipated by the Lazio Regional Law no. 63/1988 and subsequently refined by the Lazio Regional Law no. 34/1997. These laws introduced: (i) the cats' right to live free and safe; (ii) the compulsory neutering of cats by the Veterinary Services of the Local Health Unit; (iii) the institutionalization of cat caretakers. Within this context, this paper intends to evaluate the effects of the application of the Italian laws on management of urban free-roaming cats for the years 1988 to 2018. To this end, some indicators have been built and applied to our activity data: number of censused colonies and number of cats; number of stable colonies due to neutering; number of hygiene and sanitary notifications; number of notifications to check cat welfare; number of bites by unowned free-roaming cats; number of notifications of cat poisoning. The number of citizens' requests for institutional interventions by public veterinary services in cat colonies management and, accordingly, the detection of cat colonies yet unknown, seem to confirm the interest of people to control the cat colonies in Rome in a humanitarian way, as evidenced in our data. This fact/phenomenon should be analyzed in its multiple dimensions, also including the many changes and social unrests which have affected the human-cat relationship in the last 30 years.
Highlights
IntroductionWith regard to the evolutionary trend in global thinking and advocacy about unowned urban cat management, as Italian stakeholders, we were born on the right side of the world: it was back in 1991 that the Italian Parliament passed the first law (no. 281 /1991) that aimed at managing urban free-roaming cats living in colonies, without killing and/or moving them from their site
With regard to the evolutionary trend in global thinking and advocacy about unowned urban cat management, as Italian stakeholders, we were born on the right side of the world: it was back in 1991 that the Italian Parliament passed the first law that aimed at managing urban free-roaming cats living in colonies, without killing and/or moving them from their site
Activity data were collected by veterinarians working in our Unit, as the Italian law prescribes and, they originate from our Unit database; every 3 months, data are to be transmitted to the Directorate-General of the Local Health Unit Rome 3 which, in turn, will forward them to the Regional Authority
Summary
With regard to the evolutionary trend in global thinking and advocacy about unowned urban cat management, as Italian stakeholders, we were born on the right side of the world: it was back in 1991 that the Italian Parliament passed the first law (no. 281 /1991) that aimed at managing urban free-roaming cats living in colonies, without killing and/or moving them from their site. 281 /1991) that aimed at managing urban free-roaming cats living in colonies, without killing and/or moving them from their site. It had been anticipated by the Lazio Regional Law no. Rome Unowned Domestic Cat Management by the Veterinary Services of the Local Health Unit; (iii) the institutionalization of cat caretakers. The latter, gathered in Associations for Animal Protection or in Associations of Animalist Volunteers can, and should, be registered in a regional roll. In agreement with the Public Veterinary Service and the Office for the Animal Welfare of the territory, they are officially assigned the management of a cat colony, but the mayor remains the responsible “owner” of the cats
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
