A wild boar mother and six puppies killed in a park in Rome.
Narcoticized and killed last night in the Mario Moderni garden, at Aurelio, in a play area where children usually play.
The episode aroused the anger of animal rights activists and beyond.
Several inhabitants guarded that enclosure to the last in an attempt to ensure another fate for the boar family.
"Don't shoot, it's a mom," someone shouted as provincial police officers pointed their guns.
And now there is controversy over who gave the order to shoot the animals, with a long-distance battle between the Campidoglio and the Lazio Region.
The Mayor of Rome Virginia Raggi who asked for "the immediate establishment of an administrative inquiry commission to shed light on the facts and assess any profiles of responsibility".
"Yesterday a cold-blooded massacre was carried out at the hands of the municipal administration of Rome and its leaders - attacks Michela Vittoria Brambilla (Fi), president of the Italian League for the Defense of Animals and the Environment - Although Leiden had offered to take charge of it and had acquired an agreement with the Lazio Region, the manager of the Municipality of Rome still gave the order to kill the animals. For this reason I will denounce him and ask the mayor Raggi to immediately release him from office ".
Not only.
Brambilla points out that "the manager of the Municipality of Rome who gave the order also insulted me with untraceable sexist epithets".
An episode that immediately triggered the solidarity of the colleagues in Forza Italia.
As for the story of the wild boars, the reply from the president of the Environment Commission of Rome Capital Daniele Diaco (M5s) was not long in coming: "The Region orders the killing of 6 wild boars, Brambilla barks comfortably from the sofa of her house and us, the only ones to have put their face on it and to have always shown opposition to the killing of these animals, would we be the executioners? Scandalous. For 3 hours I guarded the Mario Moderni Garden to try to reiterate that killing is not the most suitable solution, correct and ethically just. The Lazio Region is absent, the only subject that could stop the execution of the six wild boars as the only body competent in matters of wildlife ".
And the councilor for animal welfare of Roma Capitale Laura Fiorini adds: "the privileged choice is capturing with special cages, but since the Lazio Region and Roma Natura have not prepared them, the technical table considered it necessary to proceed with teleanesthesia. ".
The Lazio Region, however, is not there and, through the mouth of the Environment Councilor Enrica Onorati, clarifies. "The decision of telenarcosis and euthanasia was taken unanimously at the technical table. Despite this, in the evening, thanks to the mass at the disposal of the honorable Brambilla of his association during a phone call between you, Diaco and me as a Region, we expressed our willingness to give the cages of the Lazio Parks to the Municipality of Rome on loan for use to allow the collection of animals. Which involved a period of time necessary for making them available, since the cages of RomaNatura, who sits at the table, were busy containing the wildlife in the nature reserve, as required by law.
The phone call ended with the Diaco's commitment to warn "the manager of the Municipality to prepare everything.
"From there, we sadly learned from the press, both I and Mr Brambilla, about the operation in the garden", concludes Onorati.
Meanwhile, the senator of Leu Loredana De Petris, president of the Misto group, announced "a question aimed at shedding light on the matter".
And animal rights activists are on a war footing.
The Italian Association for the defense of animals and the environment announced that on Monday it will present "a complaint against the mayor for the crime of killing animals".
While the National Animal Protection Onlus called what happened "a shame".
For Piergiorgio Benvenuti, president of the Ecoitaliasolidale Ecological Movement, it was an "unworthy" episode.