displayfireworks1
12-30-2013, 11:47 PM
Italy's most famous pet, Dudu the poodle, is urging Italians to stop the New Year's Eve practice of setting off powerful fireworks which kill and wound several every year.
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02777/dudu_2777267b.jpg
The annual campaign to stop Italians letting off frequently fatal fireworks on New Year’s Eve has found a unusual new front man in Dudu, the fluffy poodle belonging to Silvio Berlusconi’s fiancée.
Ever since Francesca Pasquale, the 28-year-old girlfriend of the former prime minister, introduced Dudu to the Berlusconi household, the dog has become Italy’s most famous pet, appearing in photos with Berlusconi and Vladimir Putin.
Now, Dudu’s Facebook page has launched a campaign against the Italian habit of setting off illegal and powerful fireworks on Dec. 31, which leave a pall of thick smoke over cities like Naples and Rome while killing and wounding Italians every year.
But according to the Facebook page, Dudu’s primary concern are Italy’s pets, not their owners.
“Dear friends, the end of the year is approaching, as is the problem of the fireworks that will be let off to celebrate,” states the page, which urges Italians to keep pets indoors, with the TV turned up at midnight.
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“Don’t leave pets outdoors tied up because they might strangle themselves trying to flee,” said Carla Rocchi, president of Italy’s National Association for the Protection of Animals.
“Some 5,000 animals are killed on Dec. 31, from domestic pets which flee to birds which lose all orientation and collide with windows,” she told the Daily Telegraph.
In Naples, the epicentre of Italy’s obsession with fireworks, police said they were on the look out this year for a massive, illegally made firework which could damage nearby buildings and had been nicknamed “The Land of Fires” after the area near Naples where the mafia buries and burns toxic waste. A few years ago, local manufacturers named a potent firework after Osama Bin Laden.
This year, in the run-up to Dec. 31, Naples police seized a tonne of illegally made local fireworks.
Making life more dangerous in the south of Italy is the tradition of throwing old possessions out of the window at midnight.
On Monday, Rome newspaper Il Messaggero went as far as recommending a mild sedative for particularly skittish pets before midnight.
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02777/dudu_2777267b.jpg
The annual campaign to stop Italians letting off frequently fatal fireworks on New Year’s Eve has found a unusual new front man in Dudu, the fluffy poodle belonging to Silvio Berlusconi’s fiancée.
Ever since Francesca Pasquale, the 28-year-old girlfriend of the former prime minister, introduced Dudu to the Berlusconi household, the dog has become Italy’s most famous pet, appearing in photos with Berlusconi and Vladimir Putin.
Now, Dudu’s Facebook page has launched a campaign against the Italian habit of setting off illegal and powerful fireworks on Dec. 31, which leave a pall of thick smoke over cities like Naples and Rome while killing and wounding Italians every year.
But according to the Facebook page, Dudu’s primary concern are Italy’s pets, not their owners.
“Dear friends, the end of the year is approaching, as is the problem of the fireworks that will be let off to celebrate,” states the page, which urges Italians to keep pets indoors, with the TV turned up at midnight.
.
.
.
“Don’t leave pets outdoors tied up because they might strangle themselves trying to flee,” said Carla Rocchi, president of Italy’s National Association for the Protection of Animals.
“Some 5,000 animals are killed on Dec. 31, from domestic pets which flee to birds which lose all orientation and collide with windows,” she told the Daily Telegraph.
In Naples, the epicentre of Italy’s obsession with fireworks, police said they were on the look out this year for a massive, illegally made firework which could damage nearby buildings and had been nicknamed “The Land of Fires” after the area near Naples where the mafia buries and burns toxic waste. A few years ago, local manufacturers named a potent firework after Osama Bin Laden.
This year, in the run-up to Dec. 31, Naples police seized a tonne of illegally made local fireworks.
Making life more dangerous in the south of Italy is the tradition of throwing old possessions out of the window at midnight.
On Monday, Rome newspaper Il Messaggero went as far as recommending a mild sedative for particularly skittish pets before midnight.