14 people died and tens of thousands of people were forced to evacuate their homes after the devastating floods in northern Italy.
Now the animal rights organization Essere Animali is sounding the alarm that animals in the area have been severely affected.
Tens of thousands of animals are believed to have died in the natural disaster.
The devastation following the major floods in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy is enormous. 14 people have died and at the worst of the situation, tens of thousands of people were forced to evacuate their homes.
Now the Italian animal rights organization is sounding the alarm about the serious situation for the animals in the area. In a press release, the organization says that it has been in the area to document the conditions for the animals after the disaster.
Emilia-Romagna, along with the regions of Lombardy and Veneto, is one of the areas in the country where the most animals are raised, according to Essere animali. Every month, over 20 million poultry and one million pigs are raised in the area.
60,000 dead chickens on a farm
In its report, the organization states that it is difficult to give an exact figure for how many animals died in the floods, but it is about tens of thousands.
On one of the farms visited, 60,000 dead chickens were found. On a farm in the town of Bertinoro, hundreds of dead pigs were found – and thousands of live pigs were standing in flooded barns.
Essere animali also criticizes the food industry and accuses the system of “treating animals as commodities”. Sharp criticism is directed at the lack of evacuation plans for the animals in emergency situations.
“The images that we now see show how fragile and unprepared our country is in the face of the climate crisis that affects both humans and animals. Essere Animali expresses full solidarity with those affected by this terrible tragedy,” writes the organization.