SEMPRONIANO (Grosseto) – A slice of heaven Lucio and Bob have already earned it. And, after the amazement of the first moments, after a journey of hours from Verona to the hills of the Maremma, they came out of the protective cage to embrace that nature denied for years. Charlie, on the other hand, is still afraid. He looks at us opening his mouth, as he does with his enemies. Horrible scars are visible on the head. “What remains of a cranial implant,” explains Michela Kuan, a biologist and head of the Lav research area without animals. «It has undergone long and invasive trials. He is 28 years old, Charlie, he is very old but he too has now acquired the right to a new life ».
New arrivals
Lucio, Bob and Charlie are the three macaques who have just arrived at Crase, the recovery center for wild and exotic animals in Semproniano, in the province of Grosseto, not far from the thermal baths of Saturnia. They will never again be free animals, these monkeys, because their nature has been modified by other primates, humans, but in these fifty hectares immersed in spectacular vegetation they will be able to find that serenity that until now has been denied them. The three macaques are free thanks to an agreement between the Municipality and the University of Verona to stop the experimentation on primates.
The “miraculous”
They are not the only ones miraculous. In the center there is another fifty or so monkeys. “We are also treating colonies of macaques recovered from the Universities of Modena and Padua”, explains Gianluca Felicetti, president of the Lav. “They come here as individuals sentenced to life without fault, many of whom carry with them decades of suffering they have endured in the workshops where they have known iron and concrete bars and have lived in cramped cages. But over time, thanks to the recovery of spaces, the socialization and the work of our primatologists, who assist them night and day, they are then able to regain their animal nature ».
The center of Semproniano
In Semproniano, in the fifty hectares owned by the anti-vivisection League and the other half by the veterinarian Marco Aloisi, the creator of the Center, are kept more than a thousand animals. Species stolen not only from laboratories but also from private individuals, circuses, even from a restaurant that used two caimans as a reminder, which today live here in a greenhouse where their natural environment has been reproduced. Visiting the Center, which unfortunately for lack of legislation is forbidden to the public, is an extraordinary experience. There are wolves and hybrids, llamas, dromedaries, zebras, porcupines, birds of prey, tropical snakes, huge Brazilian parrots that greet you with the most unlikely “hello”. And again badgers, pink flamingos. And lions. Here they are Elsa and Madiba, lying in the sun of an (almost) African June.
The guests
«They are a boy and a girl, kidnapped from two circuses», says Giacomo Bottinelli, Lav volunteer, «they have been mutilated. Elsa doesn’t have the nails on her hind legs, Madiba doesn’t have a tail ». They live on a large fenced hill and here they have tasted a bit of freedom they had never known. There are not only exotic animals in Semproniano. In twenty years the Center has welcomed more than 15,000 animals, 70% of the guests have been readmitted to the wild, but unfortunately many species, especially those born in captivity, will have to be cared for for life. «A fundamental commitment», explain Aloisi and Felicetti, «also because our center is not a zoo, but a complex system where animals can find themselves». The future? Crase will welcome more and more animals (it is also considered a center of excellence abroad) and will try to become a place where you can learn to love and respect them. «We would like to have rules that would allow us to open to the public and above all to schools», explain Felicetti and Aloisi, «with a project of great educational potential on also respecting the legality of animals. I hope that the government and Parliament will recognize the moral, but also social, possibilities that a new animal pedagogy can offer us humans ».
June 14, 2021 (change June 15, 2021 | 11:13 am)
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