Catwalk of hero dogs in Montecitorio: it’s the first time in history
Marley and Rex are man's first four-legged friends to enter the Chamber of Deputies
ROME – Not just social media and TV stars. Marley, a blind dog capable of finding missing people, and Rex, adopted by the police after being mistreated, are man’s first four-legged friends to make their entry into the Chamber of Deputies. The occasion was the presentation of the book ‘The colorful life of a blind dog’ (Bookers Italia), organized by Cristina Del Tutto, animator of Radio Parlamentare, in the presence of the president of the Labor commission, Walter Rizzetto (FdI), the president of the European Policies commission, Alessandro Giglio Vigna (Lega), the PD deputy Marco Simiani and the Avs deputy, Devis Dori. Undersecretary Paola Frassinetti also participated.
“BORN DISABLED DOES NOT MEAN BEING DEFEATED”
The protagonists of the day are Marley’s owners, Carlotta Nelli and Marco Chimenti, who saved him from the death to which he was destined due to his blindness. And the agents of the Porta Maggiore police station, who chose to take care of Rex and transform him into a testimonial for the defense of animals in meetings organized with young people in schools. “Disability is scary, no one chooses it. But being born disabled does not mean being born defeated”, began Carlotta Nelli, speaking about her Marley. “He has made his diversity a strong point, in 2019 he arrived with us in Tuscany”, in Santa Maria a Monte, in the province of Pisa, “and began to live his life in colour. Marley, now, as a dog from helping he became a dog who helps, he joined the Civil Protection and is getting his lifeguard dog license. He has made his life a masterpiece. He taught us happiness and the art of living.”
MARLEY STAR WITH 110 THOUSAND FOLLOWERS
In the meantime, Marley has become a social media star (he has 110 thousand followers on Instagram), has hosted several TV shows (including Sanremo) and will soon be the inspiration for a film. Before ending up on the big screen, his story also inspired inspector Giovanni La Prova, of the Porta Maggiore police station, who decided to have Rex adopted at the Rome Police Headquarters: “He left an impression on us a phrase that Carlotta said in a TV programme: ‘Disability exists only in the eyes of those who want to look at it’. Rex suffered mistreatment by the man, when he was found he was abandoned and is remained locked in a kennel for two years. Now he has a family made up of men and women from the state police. We take Rex to schools, where we talk about bullying and animal abuse.
We hope that is a support to encourage adoptions also by other police forces”.
IN CALENDAR LAW ON TAKEN-UP PENALTIES FOR ANIMAL MISTREATMENT
Rizzetto for his part recalled that “the law signed by the intergroup for the protection of animals is on the calendar, thanks to which we want to significantly tighten the penalties for those who mistreat animals. For Politics is a great opportunity.” For Giglio Vigna “when there are beautiful ideas with positive messages we can only support them”, while for Simiani “today helps us understand how important it is to break down barriers”. Finally, according to Dori, “animals are sentient beings, looking at them is not difficult to understand. And they help us to be more sentient as human beings. There are no political sides to divide us on this”.