"The biggest pain? To think that they took my animals away to leave them to die alone and away from me". At the center of the enclosure that housed the zoo in Guspini, Marino Nonnis looks around nostalgically . Instead of leopards, panthers and lions, on the sunny farm along the road that leads to Montevecchio there are four Molossians perched on their cages, a peacock and, of course, a chicken coop.
Eight years have passed since the Forestry teams took away the big cats that have attracted schoolchildren and the curious for decades, but it seems like a century ago.
«They took everything, they contested my lack of licenses, yet I had them, I was authorized by the prefecture, so much so that I was fully acquitted at the trial. On the other hand, otherwise, how could I have taken advantage of the de minimis contribution of 41 thousand euros with which I achieved all this?».
The anger of those days is only dormant. “Accusations of ill-treatment? Never, they could not. All the vets testified that the animals were very well taken care of».
In 2014 the leopard Naomi and the panther Kate were born, the following year was the beginning of the end . «I will never regret it enough: one evening I closed the gate badly and they managed to open it. When I returned I saw Naomi and Kate walking on the boundary wall. I immediately put Naomi back in the cage, while Kate started running away.' The escape involved the carabinieri, police, finance. “There was even a helicopter. My only thought was that I didn't want them to shoot her, I had to take her».
So it was, but shortly after the Forestry arrived. “I can't think about it yet. They came from Rome, stuffed the animals with anesthetic and loaded them onto two vans headed for Ravenna and Padua».
Mariella Careddu
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