Dear Director Feltri,
I was on vacation in Taranto when I saw a small, domestic kitten, abandoned on the edge of a road. He was frightened, hungry, trembled. I took it, put in the car and brought with me to Rome, where I live. Now he is fine, he sleeps on my bed. But I wonder: how is it possible that someone capable of abandoning such a defenseless creature exists? What kind of human being can look an animal in the eyes that trusts and then let him die on the street?
Affection
Luca Mariani
Dear Luca,
First of all I thank you for the gesture you made. You did what every person who wants to say human should do and not simply personally living.
You collected a defenseless being, you torn him to the danger, you gave him shelter. You became a house. You made something big. Unfortunately, however, your question, that is, “how is it possible to abandon a kitten?”, Does not have a rational response. Because what you have seen is the most filthy expression of our society: indifference. The cruelty of abandonment but also of the betrayal of those who trust, of those who believe.
A crime committed in silence, without witnesses, without cries, but with devastating consequences.
The numbers speak clearly, and make horror: every year in Italy over 50 thousand dogs and 80 thousand cats are abandoned, with a terrible peak in summer. Only in June 2025, ENPA reported more than 6,300 animals saved from the street.
It is not progress, dear Luca. It is barbarism.
Other than civilization. We are regressing, and great steps. On the other hand, we fill the social networks of kittens and poodes, postpose aphorisms on love and kindness, but then we let innocent creatures die as if they were paper. This is our contemporary hypocrisy: we love animals when they are in the Reels, but we treat them as garbage when they disturb us at home, on vacation, in life. I am not tender with anyone, but in front of these things I even become fierce. A country that tolerates abandonment and mistreatment of animals is a country sick in the soul, other than civil.
Because, see, the meter to measure the size of a civilization is simple: just look at as the weak, those who cannot defend themselves. And among all, the animals are the most defenseless.
When a man firms himself against a creature who cannot speak, he cannot ask for help, he cannot escape, he is showing how small, miserable, frightening. Those who abandon an animal is not just uncivilized. It’s a coward. An infamous. I tell you with my heart in my hand, because I too have collected many of lost and condemned animals.
I saved dogs, cats, even a donkey intended for slaughter at the feast of the unit, yes, a donkey. He had those big, good, resigned eyes, and I was unable to leave him there, at the mercy of the communists willing to roast him. I took him away and I donated it to those who love the beasts, Michela Vittoria Brambilla.
Today I live with three cats saved from the street. They follow me as children. They look at me and understand everything. And if one day someone should ask me what was really important in my life, among the thousand battles, the newspapers, the books, the controversies, some adventures and some love …
Well, I believe that among the most noble and beautiful things that remain engraved on my path there are also those dirty legs that I brought home. Those queues that waited for me in front of the door. Those eyes that thanked me without saying anything. Because, dear Luca, whoever saves an animal does not only save a lifetime. He also saves himself.