Fulco Pratesi, the doyen of Italian environmentalists:«I wash as little as possible and flush the toilet every 3 pees»

The honorary president of the WWF:we are naked monkeys, a healthy animal doesn't stink

Fulco Pratesi, 89 years old, founded WWF Italia in 1966 and is still honorary president.Today he talks about it in an interview with Corriere della Sera.In which he says that he loves all living beings, even mosquitoes:«If they buzz around me, I rebel and chase them away but then I regret it.Luckily I'm not appetizing, I reject them, because I take medicine for rheumatoid arthritis.But I threw some slippers at him too."The doyen of Italian environmentalists also appreciates rats:«In the country house, in Viterbo, there was one who ate fruit.We placed an ancient trap, which doesn't hurt, a cage full of sunflower seeds.Captured, we took him a kilometer away.The next day he was already back."

Former hunter

But there is an unpublished detail revealed in the conversation with Giovanna Cavalli:in his youth Pratesi was a hunter.«In 1954, at the age of 19, I left for Kenya for my first hunting trip.A very long crossing, on another sea cart, to Mombasa.I only caught a gazelle and a warthog.When I returned to Rome, my friends made fun of me by calling me “Buana”».Then, while he was preparing to hunt brown bears in Russia, a mother with three cubs passed in front of him:«On the way back I sold the rifle.I have never killed an animal again."Then he says that it was he who brought the first seagull to Rome:«A wounded seagull.A friend who had collected it in Giannutri had entrusted it to me.My brother-in-law Cecco was director of the zoo, we put her next to the seal tank, from which she stole sardines.He healed.Two years later he met a wild male and they made a nest together, among the rocks."

«I wash as little as possible»

He then talks about his hygiene routine:«I wash as little as possible.With a sponge soaked in cold water and just a drop of soap.Face, armpits, lower parts."And this is because «water is precious.In Italy everyone wastes 400 liters a day."Bathing in the tub, according to him, is unnecessary.While he has never taken a shower.All this water falling on me bothers me and in my opinion makes me lose my hair."Shampoo is allowed once every ten days:«Beard once a month, teeth with a barely damp toothbrush».And he flushes the bathroom "every three pees."And this is because «Man is nothing but a naked ape.A healthy animal doesn't stink.My poodle Robin gets a bath every three months, for beauty.No one has ever called me dirty.Human stench doesn't repel, just avoid garlic and onion.Plus I don't smoke or drink."