As a Brit, it’s quite shocking for me to see a nationwide campaign fighting against the abandonment of pets on a country’s roads and yet it seems so necessary here. Obviously, despite being a nation known to be animal lovers, the UK isn’t perfect, but the difference between there and Italy is more than noticeable.

Every year, an estimated 50,000 dogs and 80,000 cats are abandoned by their families in Italy. Most of them are literally left behind to fend for themselves when their families go away on long summer holidays. 80% of those abandoned have a high likelihood of dying in the first few weeks either on the roads, from other animals or from people who don’t want them hanging around.

Many Italians don’t share our British sentimentality when it comes to family pets – for many, pets are not seen as “part of the family”. They believe that cats are perfectly fine to leave alone for extended periods and that they can take care of themselves; dogs are often left to roam about as they please, even in the cities. Many still don’t sterilise their pets, claiming that “it’s against nature”. The number of pregnant female cats abandoned, dumped at night in registered cat colonies, is huge. If the pregnant queen isn’t dumped, many kittens just days or weeks old are left in boxes to be found by volunteers – hopefully in time. Many still believe that sterilising animals is unnatural, but they don’t want to take responsibility for the inevitable puppies or kittens. The false belief that a dog or a cat needs to have at least one litter to be healthy is still widespread.

Abandoning animals is illegal and people who dump their pets face fines of up to 10,000€ or a year in jail, but it doesn’t seem to deter them and all the time, volunteers are almost collapsing under the numbers of animals needing help.