The ten pigs from the Cuori Liberi shelter were killed amid protests by volunteers

Ten pigs from the Cuori Liberi project killed in the Pavia area:some had swine fever but for the volunteers there was no danger to humans.

• Nothing to do for the ten pigs hosted by the Cuori Liberi project, in the Pavia area:some had contracted African swine fever.
• The police entered the shelter with a blitz and killed the animals:some volunteers who tried to resist were injured.
• The hearing at the TAR was scheduled for October 5;34 thousand pigs have already been killed since the beginning of the ASF.

There was nothing done, despite the appeals and requests presented, for the ten pigs in the shelter Free Hearts of Zinasco, in the province of Pavia:this morning, after the intervention of the police in the shelter, the pigs were killed, because they were potentially vectors for the spread of the so-called swine fever (PSA).Just yesterday a group of associations, including theInternational Organization for Animal Protection (Oipa), the Anti-vivisection League, Animal Equality Italy, they had sent aurgent request to the authorities asking for a different outcome of the case, underlining the fact that the animals were "perfectly isolated, not destined for the food chain, some healthy, others healthy carriers of Psa".According to Oipa, the ten pigs, "if kept alive, would have been the symbol of the redemption of the human side which should guide laws, regulations and ordinances.Instead they entered ignoring the requests of activists and animal protection associations.We preferred to treat them, as always, as objects, goods."

In the province of Pavia alone, where the sanctuary is located, they have been demolished to date around 34 thousand pigs since the start of the swine fever epidemic:numbers that give the more general dimensions of a massacre dictated by the existence of intensive and non-intensive animal farming considered as a mere source of income.

The ten pigs posed no danger 

The ten pigs hosted by the shelter Free Hearts Project of Zinasco had been rescued from farms or from contexts of mistreatment, but had still been sentenced to death by an order of thePavia Health Protection Agency issued following the discovery of an outbreak of African swine fever at the facility:some of the pigs, until this morning, showed mild symptoms but were in good general health.The demolition should have taken place already last Friday, but the mobilization of the activists, who had occupied the sanctuary, had prevented the execution for the first time.

Twelve of the most representative associations at a national level had at that point sent the urgent request to the Extraordinary Commissioner for the PSA and to the sector managers of the Ministry of Health, the Lombardy Region and the ATS of Pavia, as well as to the mayor of Zinasco, asking for one moratorium on culling and to find together agreed solutions that would safeguard the lives of the still healthy pigs present inside the shelter.In the letter, the associations pointed out that the animals were in a "permanent refuge", a place that welcomes animals not intended for food production, which remain there for the rest of their lives without being slaughtered:practically no risk to human health or to the spread of contagion.All these elements were not taken into consideration in the adoption of the abatement order.

This morning's blitz took everyone by surprise, also because the Regional Administrative Court of Lombardy had already scheduled the hearing for October 5th to comment on the case.Despite this, in the morning the police in riot gear and the ATS entered the shelter, also triggering a scuffle with the activists present, some of whom - reports the Anti-Vivisection League - were injured.For the Lav it is "unacceptable violence:isolated and protected animals are killed, when hunters are instead allowed to continue killing wild boars and carrying them around, contributing to the spread of Psa.We are devastated and angry at this terrible injustice."