{"id":49292,"date":"2025-07-08T17:52:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T17:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/49292\/"},"modified":"2025-07-08T17:52:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T17:52:11","slug":"italy-outraged-at-killing-of-police-bloodhound-found-dead-after-eating-food-laced-with-nails","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/49292\/","title":{"rendered":"Italy outraged at killing of police bloodhound, found dead after eating food laced with nails"},"content":{"rendered":"

ROME (AP) \u2014 The horrific killing of a police bloodhound, who helped find nine people over the course of his sniffer-dog rescue career, has outraged Italians and sparked a criminal investigation to find his killers.<\/p>\n

Bruno, a 7-year-old, 88-kilogram (195-pound) bloodhound, was found dead Friday morning in his shed in southern Taranto. His trainer, Arcangelo Caressa, said he had been fed bits of dog food laced with nails. In an interview Tuesday, Caressa said he suspected the killing was revenge against him \u2014 not Bruno \u2014 for his volunteer animal rescue work.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was deliberately a horrific act to cause the dog intense suffering, because feeding him bites filled with nails means tearing apart his insides, tearing apart his esophagus and internal organs and causing excruciating pain,\u201d Caressa told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

Premier Giorgia Meloni, who was photographed with Bruno after one of his heroic rescues, said that his slaughter was \u201cvile, cowardly, unacceptable.\u201d Lawmaker Michael Vittoria Brambilla, a longtime animal rights activist, filed a criminal complaint with prosecutors under a new law that she helped push through stiffening penalties for anyone who kills or mistreats an animal.<\/p>\n

The editor of the Il Giornale daily, Vittorio Feltri, voiced outrage, saying Bruno had done more civic good in Italy than most Italian citizens.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"This<\/p>\n

This photo made available Tuesday, July 8, 2025 and taken Friday Jan. 4, 2025, shows bits of dog food laced with nails that were fed to a police dog, the 7-year-old bloodhound Bruno, killing him, his trainer Arcangelo Caressa said. (AP Photo\/Arcangelo Caressa)<\/p>\n

This photo made available Tuesday, July 8, 2025 and taken Friday Jan. 4, 2025, shows bits of dog food laced with nails that were fed to a police dog, the 7-year-old bloodhound Bruno, killing him, his trainer Arcangelo Caressa said. (AP Photo\/Arcangelo Caressa)<\/p>\n

Read More<\/p>\n

Caressa said that he had told prosecutors that he suspected that he was the ultimate target of Bruno\u2019s killers, and that Bruno was killed \u201cto get to me.\u201d <\/p>\n

Caressa runs a volunteer public animal rescue organization, ENDAS, that among other things rescues dogs from illegal dogfights. He said the service used to be run by for-profit firms and said he suspected that his competitors were behind Bruno\u2019s killing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn recent months, we have received threats, acts of persecution, defamation and slander from certain individuals who have already been investigated in the past and are known to the judicial authorities, who have been trying in every way to take over this rescue service by despicable means,\u201d Caressa told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"This<\/p>\n

This photo taken Jan. 11, 2025 in Taranto, southern Italy, and made available Tuesday, July 8, 2025, shows Bruno, a 7-year-old bloodhound who was found dead Friday, July 4, in his shed in Taranto after he was fed bits of dog food laced with nails, his trainer Arcangelo Caressa said. (AP Photo\/Claudia Aloisio)<\/p>\n

This photo taken Jan. 11, 2025 in Taranto, southern Italy, and made available Tuesday, July 8, 2025, shows Bruno, a 7-year-old bloodhound who was found dead Friday, July 4, in his shed in Taranto after he was fed bits of dog food laced with nails, his trainer Arcangelo Caressa said. (AP Photo\/Claudia Aloisio)<\/p>\n

Read More<\/p>\n

The new animal protection law, known as the Brambilla law, went into effect on July 1 and calls for up to four years in prison and a 60,000-euro (around a $70,000) fine, with the stiffest penalties applied if the mistreatment is committed in front of children or is filmed and disseminated online.<\/p>\n

Feltri said that the penalty should be even greater than four years, saying animals must be respected \u201cespecially when they behave heroically\u201d as Bruno had.<\/p>\n

Caressa said that Bruno might have appeared clumsy and overweight, but was powerful, strong and dedicated to his job.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a giant,\u201d said Caressa. \u201cWhen he went out on a search and you put his harness on, there was no one else like him. He would set off, smell the person we were looking for and run like a train until we found them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Officially, his record stands at nine people found: Five people who were alive and four whose bodies were recovered, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the motto for us rescuers is always the same: Bring the missing person home in any case, because there is always someone among their relatives who is looking for that missing person,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ROME (AP) \u2014 The horrific killing of a police bloodhound, who helped find nine people over the course…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":49293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3425,3881,4219,10407,4654,57,37440,4221,2219,2936,362,37441,50,7926,37442,103,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-49292","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-animals","9":"tag-ap-top-news","10":"tag-crime","11":"tag-criminal-punishment","12":"tag-dogs","13":"tag-general-news","14":"tag-giorgia-meloni","15":"tag-homicide","16":"tag-italy","17":"tag-law-enforcement","18":"tag-legal-proceedings","19":"tag-michael-vittoria-brambilla","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-pets","22":"tag-vittorio-feltri","23":"tag-world","24":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114818891482665952","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}