A photo with a wild animal?It can kill him:Enpa's anti-selfie campaign

The craze for taking photos with wild animals - be it a wild boar, a swan, a fox or a starfish - is also becoming a problem in Italy.Enpa raises the alarm:"Animals can suffer or even die and a photo can be a crime"

ROME – The National Animal Protection Agency issues a warning:selfies with wild animals are not only irresponsible, they can cost an animal's life and can constitute a crime.Removing an animal from its natural habitat, forcing it to unnatural behaviors or causing him suffering is in fact a crime punished by law by article 544 ter of the Penal Code.Animal Protection therefore launches the campaign #NoSelfieWithWildlife to begin to address a topic which, thanks to the success on social media of contents featuring animals in general, it is becoming a real problem in Italy too.

The latest case in the news is that of a flamingo who, debilitated and unable to fly, was wandering around the beaches of Rimini and was surrounded several times by swimmers who wanted to take a photo of him.The animal was recovered by the Cras of Rimini, visited and then released into the wild in a less crowded place.But this summer, victims of this new crazy need to show everything with a shot on social media were many animals, of the most varied species: wild boars on the beach, swans at the seaside, geese in city parks, deer in national parks, so much so that the Pnalm decided to publish a video where it shows all the behaviors not to be imitated.

ANIMALS CAN BE PLACED AT RISK BY A PHOTO

It is good to remember that wild animals can even die for a selfie.This is the case of photo with starfish which, to be best immortalized by our lenses, are often picked up and pulled out of the water, reckless behavior which can lead to the death of the animal.And again.Chasing or hunting a wild animal to photograph it is a behavior that causes stress and disorientation in the animal and constitutes a crime.The Enpa legal office has already reported several people for having chased by car bears or wolves.Then there are selfies that put the lives of animals at risk because they make them confident.This is the case, for example, of photos with foxes or deer.Food is often used to bring them closer and this contact with humans can seriously endanger their survival by making them confident.Confidence that can prove fatal if it is perhaps a hunter or a person with bad intentions who approaches them.Let's remember that disturbing and foraging wild animals is prohibited by European directives and by national law 157 of 1992, as wild fauna are the unavailable heritage of the State and are strictly protected.

Then there is a whole market that profits from shots with animals.Even in Italy now, abroad such as in the United States (in New York or Los Angeles) it has been a sad reality for several years now, there are more and more cases of people trying to profit from the skin of wild animals:they ask for money in exchange for a shot with rare or exotic animals and, to do so, force them to stay for hours in crowded and touristy places.Enpa, for example, intercepted and reported it a man who charged to take a photo with a barn owl in Rome and also a similar case in Venice.
“A selfie with a wild animal - states Carla Rocchi, Enpa national president - it may seem like a funny memory to share on social media, but behind that photo lies a very different reality.Every time we interfere with the life of a wild animal, we subject it to stress, pain and abuse and in many cases, we put its life at risk.Mistreating or killing an animal is always unacceptable and very serious but even more so when it is done for purely recreational purposes.We have decided to launch this campaign, which we will develop in the coming months with various types of content and initiatives, because information on the consequences of these actions, which have unfortunately now become daily, is still too lacking. We admire, contemplate and photograph animals from a distance, in their natural habitat, without disturbing them and without interfering:this is love for nature, certainly not treating animals like stuffed animals to show off on our social profiles to get more likes on our content!”.

WHAT THE LAW SAYS

Selfie as mistreatment.Taking a selfie with a wild animal can be a crime!If, for example, to do so, we remove it from its habitat or force it to behave incompatible with its ethological characteristics, we are infringing article 544 ter of the Penal Code, risking imprisonment from three to 18 months or one fine from 5 thousand to 30 thousand euros.Selfie like killing animals.If this action of ours causes the death of the animal, as could easily happen in the case of starfish which risk not surviving when removed from the water, then the third paragraph of 544 ter provides for the penalty to be doubled.Wild animals cannot be fed.The disturbance and foraging of wild animals is prohibited by European directives and by national law 157 of 1992, as wild fauna are the unavailable heritage of the State and are strictly protected.
“We must also consider - states Claudia Ricci, Enpa lawyer - that physically removing an animal from its habitat also means altering a natural balance, so the damage even goes beyond the animal itself. Furthermore, in Italy, wildlife is subject to stringent regulatory protection both through regional laws and through special laws that regulate some territories, such as national or regional parks.For example, a few months ago there was the case of the skipper reported in Sardinia for having mistreated a seagull while he was inside the La Maddalena Archipelago National Park, grabbing it to take a selfie.The cases we deal with with the Enpa legal office are truly numerous and revealing a serious absence of culture and information on the basis of respect and protection of wild fauna".