User:JesseClifton/Animal welfare and rights in Italy

Animal welfare and rights in Italy is about the treatment of and laws concerning nonhuman animals in Italy.

Regulations
The Italian Criminal Code prohibits killing an animal cruelly or unnecessarily, cruelly or unnecessarily causing injury to an animal or subjecting it to torture, behavior or overwork, and abandoning pets or animals which have altered their behavior through being in captivity. The anti-cruelty provisions of the Criminal Code apply to farmed animals, and the government has implemented the European Union legislative requirements on farm animal welfare. Legislative Decrees issues in 1992 and 1993 regulate animals used for experimental purposes, aiming to reduce the number of experiments and animals used in experiments. Animal experiments are required to be authorized by a competent authority, and it must be demonstrated that there are no alternatives to animal use and the research will minimize pain, suffering, distress, or lasting harm.

Animal agriculture
Figures on the number of animals used for food in Italy each year include:
 * 2.59 million bovine animals slaughtered (2014)
 * 10.93 million pigs slaughtered (2014)
 * 2.52 million sheep slaughtered (2014)
 * 133,000 goats slaughtered (2014)
 * 560.67 million poultry animals slaughtered (2014)
 * 191,000 tons of wild-caught aquatic animals (2015)
 * 149,000 tons of aquaculture animals (2014)
 * 49.53 million egg laying hens in flock (2011)

A number of investigations of Italian farms have found instances of animal cruelty. Investigations by Animal Quality conducted in 2014 and 2015, produced images of, for instance, lambs slaughtered without stunning, piglets being crushed, animals hung from their limbs (which causes fractures), and animals with severe untreated diseases and injuries. Footage taken in 2014 by the organization Four Paws showed buffalo raised for mozzarella production starving and starved to death, bludgeoned to death with hammers, and suffering from untreated wounds. Evidence from this and other investigations shows that male buffalo are allowed to die from neglect or killed by illegal methods.

Veganism
A 2016 survey by Euripses found that 7.1% of respondents self-identified as vegetarian, and 1% self-identified as vegan. Of those who identified as vegetarian or vegan, 46.7% cited health and well-being as a main reason, 30% cited concerns about the animals, and 12% cited environmentalism.

Animals used for clothing
Mink are the main animals raised for fur in Italy. In 2014, 125,000 mink were killed for fur in Italy. A 2008 decree requires that mink be given an "enriched environment" allowing them to express natural behaviors such as climbing, digging, and swimming. These strict requirements may eventually phase out fur farming.

Italy is a major leather-producing country; in 2006 it produced the second-largest amount of leather (2,039 million square feet) behind China (4,000 million square feet).

Animals used for research
According to official statistics, 723,739 procedures on animals were carried out in Italy in 2013, 5.9% less than 2012.

In 2014, Italy passed stringent protections for animals in research, including bans on xenotransplantation and studying drugs of abuse on animals. In 2016 the European Union announced infringement procedures against Italy due to the law being "too restrictive".