Sitting still and silent for days and nights, he must have seemed like just another sad angel in the Italian architecture.
A monument to misery, devised by the stoniest of hearts.
For two months, this dog was no more than a face staring down from a 20-square-foot balcony, the newspaper Quotidiano reports. A short, heavy chain kept him from enjoying even that much.
But this dog's prison overlooked a bustling street in the historic province of Trapani. And a passerby met the prisoner's doleful gaze one too many times. Enough was enough.
Images of the dog in the iron cage spread on social media, eventually reaching Enrico Rizzi. A prominent animal welfare activist and head of the Secretariat National Party Animalista European, Rizzi had seen too many similar cases.
Just last year, he led a legal crusade against the owner of this dog.
And Rizzi once brawled with carriage drivers on Rome's famous Spanish Steps over how horses were being treated in the middle of a heatwave.
In the Trapani case, he didn't waste a moment. According to Quotidiano, he led a brigade of police officers and a veterinarian to the address.
The owners were charged with animal cruelty, and the sad statue of a dog in misery no longer overlooks the streets of Trapani. The dog, still without a name, is at the local shelter. It's not much, but until he finds a real home, he'll savor every precious inch of it.
If you would like to help this dog, and others in similar plights, visit ASP Trapani's website.
