Cats shut inside a building site in Lamezia Terme
The municipality closed every gap in the fence, leaving a colony shut inside a building site with no food or water. After Animal Law Italia's complaint and formal notice, a passage was reopened.
In Lamezia Terme (CZ), a colony of six or seven adult cats, with a litter of kittens, lives on municipal land due for redevelopment. In July 2026 a volunteer reported it to the municipality and to the ASP of Catanzaro, the local health authority, asking for the cats to be registered and neutered before work began. No reply. On 13 August the municipality had every gap in the fence closed, a solid fence more than two metres high: the cats were shut in, in the middle of summer, with no food or water, while rat poison was being laid along the perimeter.
The next day Animal Law Italia sent a complaint and an urgent formal notice to the municipality, the ASP, the Carabinieri Forestali, the NAS, the Prefecture and the Calabria Region. The municipality had a small window opened in the fence: the cats can come and go again.
The case is still open. The municipality says the site is not suitable for the cats and that they should be moved elsewhere. But Calabria's regional law (l.r. 45/2023, art. 13) forbids removing free-roaming cats from their habitat and states that feeding them “can never be prohibited”.
- Report (completed)
- Legal action (current) Authority's reply
- Outcome
Last update: September 2026 — The municipality replies
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Updates
September 2026
The municipality replies
The municipality confirms the passage and says the rat bait is in bait stations that pets cannot reach. It still considers the site unsuitable for the cats, and proposes finding another place with the ASL.
August 2026
A passage is reopened
While rebuilding the fence, the municipality has a small window cut into a wooden panel: the cats are free to come and go again.
14 August 2026
Complaint and urgent formal notice
Animal Law Italia asks for a gap to be reopened within 24 hours, for the rat poisoning to be checked and for the colony to be registered and neutered, and reports the facts to the Carabinieri Forestali and the NAS.
13 August 2026
The gaps are closed
The municipality has every opening in the fence closed. The cats are shut in, and the people who fed them every day can no longer reach them.
13 July 2026
The report
A volunteer reports the colony living on the site to the municipality and the ASP of Catanzaro, and asks for it to be registered and neutered before work starts. No reply.