The air is filled with scents and the forest itself seems to emanate a sense of calm. According to rumours, these mountains are infested with hungry bears and wolves., but looking around, there's nothing to suggest danger. Instead, the danger is there, even if, as often happens, it takes different forms than we expect.
The scene unfolds too quickly for Silvia to intervene: Ares moves away a couple of meters, sniffs the grass, puts something in his mouth and swallows it in an instant. Within a few minutes he begins to show symptoms of malaise and fatigue: He vomits repeatedly, drinks water continuously, and once we reach the valley, he struggles to stand. The local vet interprets the symptoms as simple gastroenteritis, but during the night, the situation worsens. At five in the morning, another rush to the veterinary clinic, where blood tests provide a grim verdict: Ares has been poisoned. What he swallowed was bait left there on purpose by someone, most likely in the hope of killing a wolf.
It's August 9th, and Silvia doesn't even have time to consider that it's her birthday. On the advice of her doctors, she heads to Padua to reach a specialized clinic, but when she arrives, the dog's condition appears desperate. Toxicology tests and X-rays reveal a horrifying reality: Ares's body contains nails, glass shards, and a substance called ethylene glycol.
It is a readily available alcoholic compound, commonly used as a coolant and antifreeze. It has a sweetish taste but is highly toxic to humans and animals. If ingested, even in small doses, it is rapidly absorbed by the body, causing neurological symptoms and severe kidney failure.
Silvia is exhausted, scared, confused, yet she doesn't think twice. A friend comes to help, loads Ares into the car, and rushes to Switzerland, where the dog arrives already in a coma. The doctors try everything, but in the morning, after a night of agony with no signs of improvement, they can only recommend euthanasia.
After two days of ordeal, Silvia finds herself saying her last goodbye to her dog via video call., torn by rage and pain. She looks in shock at Ares's body, still moving slowly, kept alive by a mechanical respirator, and as the moment comes to unplug it, a single, stunned question echoes in her mind: because?
What you have just read is a true story and it is by no means an isolated case. Every year in Italy hundreds of animals die in excruciating pain after ingesting killer baits and morsels., collateral victims of a merciless war waged by a few reckless individuals against wolves, bears, foxes, birds of prey and other wild animals considered harmful.
A more common practice than you might think, spreading poison to kill an enemy, is constantly on the rise despite being rarely discussed. Many poisoning incidents occur in isolated areas and go undetected or reported, often for fear of further retaliation.
This is why Silvia told me about her experience: to transform Ares' death into a tool to raise awareness, in the hope that no one will ever have to experience a similar tragedy again because of a danger they were unaware of.
Her desire for justice drove her to file a complaint, but it was the lawyer who assisted her who explained to her that there wasn't much she could do legally. She also suggested she share her story. to break the silence on a criminal phenomenon that puts the well-being and health of all of us at risk.
In our country, the use of poisoned bait, like trapping tools such as snares and leghold traps, was outlawed in 1977 with the hunting reform, which sanctioned the transition of wild fauna from "nobody's property" to the inalienable property of the State, protected and safeguarded.
Subsequently, other laws, decrees and ministerial ordinances (the last of which was issued in 2025) have reconfirmed the absolute ban on the use of traps and poisons throughout the national territory, underlining how the presence of toxic substances dispersed in the environment, in addition to indiscriminately affecting pets and endangered species, represents a serious factor of environmental contamination and a concrete risk for the human population.
One of the worst aspects of this practice, in fact, is that the poison doesn't just kill the animals that ingest it directly. In nature, the carcass of a dead animal quickly becomes food for many other animals, and in this way some poisons can enter the food chain and persist in the environment for a long time, causing secondary poisonings and affecting an incalculable number of species in a cascade.
Emblematic is what happened in May 2023 in the province of L'Aquila, in a particularly sensitive area from an ecological point of view, frequented among other things by the very rare Marsican brown bear, where in one fell swoop they were found the carcasses of nine wolves, two ravens and five griffon vultures, all of which died as a result of poisoning.
The wolves killed in Cocullo, Abruzzo, in May 2023
This is just one of many news stories in recent years involving pets and particularly protected wild species. Data collected at the regional level by the Experimental Zooprophylactic Institutes highlight how From the early 2000s to today, the number of poisonings has been growing practically throughout Italy, with different methods and motives from region to region.
In some ways, the situation appears to have actually worsened compared to the past. While until the 70s, the use of poisons was regulated and subject to restrictions, such as the requirement to report the presence of baits to protect human and pet health, today many areas of the country seem to have fallen into a sort of Wild West where no one is truly safe.
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In the last few days I talked about it with Mattia Colombo, Maritime Alps park ranger and coordinator of the Piedmont anti-poison dog unit. One of Mattia's tasks is to scout the area for bait, aiming to defuse any potential dangers before anyone gets hurt. This preventative work is possible thanks to his keen sense of smell. Argon, a French Pyrenean Pointer with whom Mattia has been a stable partner for a couple of years.
Mattia and Argo. Photo by Anna Boschiazzo
Poison control dog units are specialized teams made up of human operators and dogs trained to recognize various types of toxic substances, in the same way as drug or explosive detection dogs. The difference is that here they work in particularly difficult conditions: in addition to sniffing out scents and resisting the temptation to touch specially prepared morsels to tempt them, these super dogs must know how to move in unpredictable natural environments, ignoring wild animals, scent trails, and distractions of all kinds. All this requires long and continuous training, necessary to face different and ever-changing scenarios.
In Italy, anti-poison units have been operational since the early 2000s, initially with the aim of dealing with poisonings linked to the return of the wolfOver time, the tasks of these teams, which operate at the local level under the authority of the Carabinieri Forestali, Provincial Police, or protected areas, have expanded to adapt to the changes of a rapidly evolving phenomenon. As the number of targeted species and the opportunities for conflict between humans and wildlife multiply, the focus has shifted from wolf protection to a general “anti-poaching” task.
Piedmont and Liguria Anti-Poison Dog Unit. Photo by Capellino Foundation
The work they are called upon to do is not easy. First of all, due to the very nature of the threat, that anyone can implement with extreme ease and minimal risks. In most cases, the morsels are prepared by contaminating meat with substances that are easily available on the market, such as over-the-counter drugs, herbicides, or legal poisons used against mice and snails. The chance of being caught red-handed is almost nil and the evidence for conducting an after-the-fact investigation is often inconsistent.
As if that weren't enough, on those rare occasions when the perpetrator is brought to court, the outcome of the proceedings is far from certain. According to Mattia, the problem is not so much the extent of the penalties, but their actual applicability. In court, when compared to murders and robberies, poaching crimes are often treated as marginal issues, and environmental regulations themselves belong to an unfamiliar sphere for those accustomed to dealing with crimes of a different nature. The result is that many cases run aground and perhaps never reach a verdict, fueling the perception of a minor crime and, in effect, creating a dangerous gray area of impunity.
A striking example of this state of affairs came in recent days from the Court of Avezzano, where the procedural errors committed by the prosecution in the context of the Criminal proceedings against the killer of the bear Amarena They have caused yet another halt in the trial, with the increasingly concrete risk of reducing the entire proceedings to a farce.
Prevention, according to Mattia, remains the most effective tool for fighting a plague that has recently taken on even more disturbing implications. The use of poison has expanded far beyond human-wildlife conflict. It appears more and more frequently in urban contexts, in feuds between truffle hunters, in village quarrels, in private vendettas against the dog that barks at night or the neighbor's cat that pees wherever it wants. A seemingly decisive shortcut that it finds space whenever the capacity and will to build forms of coexistence are lacking.
A wolf killed by poison
The phenomenon of poisoning, Mattia claims, no longer represents only a danger for animals: it has become a matter of public safety. A largely underestimated risk that threatens dogs, cats, donkeys, horses, and even our children. Just think of the killer baits thrown into private gardens and those found in city parks, or the fact that some of the substances used are volatile and can cause serious poisoning even through simple inhalation.
Mattia is convinced that the phenomenon must be fought at a local level, where the deployment of anti-poison units familiar with the area and its critical issues can achieve significant results. However, a greater presence is needed: more resources, greater coordination between the regulatory bodies, and more dedicated personnel.
It is clear, on the other hand, that effective prevention cannot be based solely on centimeter-by-centimeter territorial control by a small number of highly qualified professionals. It must also and above all take shape on a cultural level. Hatred of wild animals – and consequently criminal acts against them – thrives where people are left alone to deal with real conflicts, such as problems of coexistence with wolves, bears, or wild boars and the resulting harm and frustration.
In the absence of coexistence projects capable of providing concrete support, the voids left by the institutions are filled with resentment, and the poison spread in the public debate by irresponsible politicians to ride the wave of discontent ends up transforming, literally, into real poison.
Mattia and Argo during training. Photo by Alfonso Lucifredi
On the contrary, where the conflict is recognized, accompanied and managed wisely, the poison recedes. The canine units say that another way is possible. They demonstrate that coexistence is not a utopia: it is a daily effort based on expertise, local presence, and shared responsibility.
But shared means that we are all involvedIt is impossible to combat such a subtle and pervasive social phenomenon if fear, silence, and resignation reign within communities.
Poisoning is a symptom of the global climate we are experiencing., of the increasingly unhealthy way we relate to animals, to landscapes, and to other human beings. However, it's important to remember that these behaviors are practiced by an extremely small minority of people. The point, then, becomes the action itself. While these people act, those who are horrified by such gestures—that is, the vast majority of us—cannot remain silent and limit themselves to expressing indignation.
In the work of Argo and Mattia and in Silvia's gesture of denouncing and telling there is perhaps the most concrete image of what is needed today: more civic sense and actionBecause coexistence is not a slogan or a utopian ideal to be defended with words, but the most mature and effective response we can give to the problems of our time. It is the arduous choice to acknowledge the existence of others and to navigate conflicts without shortcuts, with rational tools of listening and prevention. It is a practice that costs time, resources, and energy. But it is the only alternative to intolerance, which otherwise risks poisoning us all.
Before saying goodbye, I want to thank Mattia for his time and Silvia for sharing her experience with me. It wasn't easy for her to talk about such a dramatic episode again, after so much time. I hope her courage serves as an example, because It is from these gestures that a collective response to the poison that pollutes our lives can begin. Reporting a poisoned morsel, a suspicious carcass, or illegal behavior isn't snitching: it means caring for the places we live in, the animals and people who inhabit them, and, most importantly, ourselves.
Finally, I remind you that Rendez-vous was created to be an open and shared place. If you have had encounters or stories that deserve to be told, write to me at rendez-vous@iononhopauradellupo.it
And that's all for this episode. I hope you'll help me spread the word and make this topic known to as many people as possible.
We'll meet again here in a month. At our usual rendezvous.