“With Alimenta l’Amore we reiterate a responsible and affective approach”

2023-10-01 11:27:10

With Alimenta l’Amore and Human Dog 23 “there is the desire to continue to reiterate to the people, members and customers of the cooperative that the concepts of awareness and responsibility can truly be applied to all areas of our lives. There is not only a very important responsible and aware approach to the world of consumption, there is also a responsible and aware, as well as emotional, approach to the relationship with our animal friends”. These are the words of Alfredo De Bellis, vice-president of Coop Lombardia, commenting on the photographic exhibition Human Dog 23, held in the Cortile della Rocchetta of the Castello Sforzesco in Milan, a project that is part of the Feed Love campaign promoted by Coop Lombardia in collaboration with the Municipalities and local associations. A permanent collection of pet food that is distributed to dogs and cats in difficulty (www.alimentalamore.it) and which since 2014 has made it possible to distribute over 4,000,000 meals through the animal rights associations that have joined the initiative.

Human Dog 23 collects 40 of the 160 shots portraying dogs with their owners, taken by the photographer and journalist Silvia Amodio. An event now in its ninth edition which attracts enthusiasts even outside the Region. In fact, thousands of people have taken part in the set in recent years and created a real community which also includes various professionals eager to make a contribution to talk about the relationship with animals.

“When we started – says De Bellis – one of the objectives was to try to nourish a network of relationships between people that also involved their own pet”. A project born from the concrete need ‘to make people understand how they should have a conscious and responsible approach’ towards animals, animated by the intention of doing ‘something concrete for abandoned animals, dogs and more’.

An intention that took shape ten years ago, following the meeting with “people who deal with managing phenomena such as stray animals and the abandonment of animals in reception facilities”, explains the vice-president of Coop Lombardia . Over the years the project has expanded to reach and “support people who, for reasons related to their income, were beginning to have difficulty feeding their pet and who were therefore forced to abandon it, triggering a whole new series of psychological problems linked to loneliness” says De Bellis.

To date, the organizations that benefit from the Alimenta l’Amore initiative “are many and have been added over the years” because the project “covers many important areas of people’s lives, from solidarity to themes of affectivity, to of ethics and sustainability”. For the entire period of the exhibition, which can be visited for free until 30 October, it is possible to purchase the dedicated catalog from the Book Shop of the Sforzesco Castle and the proceeds will be donated to the associations that assist animals in difficulty every day.

Feed Love also feeds a rich Community and among those who are part of it, there are also those who have chosen a plant-based diet precisely by virtue of an ethical choice in the name of the man-animal relationship. In this sense, Coop responds to customer demand by “increasing the offer of products with an ethical and sustainable profile – explains De Bellis – because alongside the needs of ethical consumption, currently increasing, there is the fundamental theme of animal welfare and the emotional relationship which is also expressed through the Alimenta l’Amore project”.