Be kind to Fido

last updated 8 January 2015

Turin, Italy

The city of Turin this week adopted a 20-page series of laws to protect the rights of pets. Dog owners must now walk their dogs at least three times a day. Dyeing a dog’s fur or surgically trimming its tail or ears—what the newspaper La Stampa called “turning a dog into a ridiculous fluffy toy”—is forbidden. Feral cat colonies, ubiquitous in Italy, are now officially protected and cannot be disturbed. Even the tiny goldfish in Turin’s main park now have rights: They can no longer be scooped up and awarded as prizes in street fairs. Fines for infractions run as high as $650. In the rest of Italy, owners can be fined only for torturing or abandoning a pet.