A minor was reported in La Spezia for having fatally shot a turtle inside the Parco della Rimembranza, a green area in the north of the city. The very young high school student smashed the animal’s carapace with a stone and was filmed by some friends who were present with him at the time.
The macabre video was then shared between them in a Whatsapp chat. However, everything was also captured by the video surveillance circuit inside the recently restored park. The footage, used by local police officers to trace the perpetrator of the act, shows the group of boys who, on 18 January during school hours, enter the park to play with a shopping cart.
Identified the amphibian on the edge of an ornamental tank, in which some fish also live, one of them asks to be filmed while beating him to death. A visitor to the park noticed the wounded animal, which later sought refuge in the water, and tried to cure it in the following days.
Unfortunately in vain, the injuries sustained in the attack were too serious. Summoned to the local police headquarters together with his parents, the boy was reported to the Public Prosecutor’s Office for the crime of animal abuse and injury. He risks a minimum fine of 5,000 euros, which is increased when the act is carried out cruelly and causes the death of the animal. In the most serious cases, prison is also foreseen, from three to 18 months.
