FROM dogs forced to sprint on treadmills to horses doped with Viagra, gun-toting mafia gangsters are lining their pockets with millions from animal abuse.
The dark underworld of the so-called “zoo mafia” operates with impunity across Italy – with videos of illegal races published across social media.
Horrifying footage shows masked Sicilian gangsters shooting AK-47s while chasing a horse on motorbikes.
Speaking to The Sun, criminologist Ciro Troiano said: “It is a blatant display of criminality, complete with the brandishing of Kalashnikovs.
“The message is clear and unmistakable: we’re in charge here.”
Animal activist Enrico Rizzi said: “They can’t even be called illegal anymore because they’re done in broad daylight.”
During his nearly 20 years of investigating animal abuse, Enrico said “what is most striking is the normality with which certain incidents occur… almost as if they were accepted”.
The abuse is widespread in Sicily where the mafia “still dominates and controls portions of territory”, he explained.
Trapani and Palermo are also hotspots where dogs are trained to fight using “extremely violent methods, based on isolation and deprivation”.
Police first coined the term “zoo mafia” in the late 1990s following several reports of animal abuse and illegal betting on dog fights and races.
“The business is multi-million dollar,” Enrico explained, adding that a single dog fight or horse race can rake in bets of up to €50,000 (£43,000).
Animals – including predators like alligators and cobras – are also used “as tools for prestige, intimidation, or territorial control”.
Criminals turn sniffer dogs into “veritable war machines” to intimidate locals, Enrico said.
He added: “I have witnessed situations where particularly aggressive dogs were used by individuals connected to criminal organisations to instill fear in residents of certain neighbourhoods.”
It’s not always possible to prove direct connection with the mafia – but that “the use of animals as tools of intimidation is a real phenomenon,” he said.
Enrico has been threatened by the mafia and has been living under state protection since 2016.
Marco Trapuzzano, the chief commissioner of Italy’s environmental police told Italian newspaper Corriere della Ser in 2014: “The Camorra [mafia] is combining the use of these animals with bullets.”
He recounted two attacks in Naples where gangsters hurled snakes – a 3ft cobra and a python – into the back seats of police officer’s cars.
Police raids have found parrots squawking “I’ll shoot you” and crocs used to threaten victims – allegedly because the predators were “more convincing and made less noise” than a shootout.
But the biggest money-makers for Italian mafias – and criminal cartels around the world – is the abuse of dogs and horses.
Makeshift pits are formed by bloodthirsty spectators and muscly canines are forced to maul one another – often until one of the dogs dies.
The large bets placed on the animals make dog-fighting a lucrative industry – and breeders spend years training their pups into vicious fighting machines.
One technique used to “train” the animals is forcing the dogs to pull heavy sleds of bricks – straining their necks to reach food or water, reported SFGate.
Sonny Richichi, president of the charity Italian Horse Protection, told The Sun that horses are pumped full of drugs to “hyperstimulate” the animals before the races – and numb the pain of their destroyed legs.
He said: “Many times they have found cocaine in the horse’s blood.”
Police have frequently cracked down on “zoo mafia” but the laws are not strong enough to punish the perpetrators, experts say.
Referring to Italy’s animal rights Brambilla law, Enrico said “the penalties are so ridiculous that no one ever ends up in prison”.
“If the state fails to severely punish those who commit these criminal acts, it’s only natural that unscrupulous individuals continue to commit crimes as if nothing had happened,” he added.
“They know they will go unpunished”.
Under the 2025 law, violators face four years in prison and fines of up to £51,000 (€60,000) – a drop in the ocean compared to the hundreds of thousands which may be won in two or three races.
Lesser fines of between £4,300 (€5,000) and £8,600 (€10,000) or one year in prison apply to criminals who chain up, abuse or abandon animals.
But according to Sonny, it’s “almost impossible” for mafia members to end up behind bars.
“Two days after a raid, they start again without any problem,” he said.
He described a case where the mafia built a racetrack in northwest Sicily and advertised it on Google Maps – and other gangsters posted details of the races on Facebook.
It is not only the Italian mafia who rake in millions from abusing animals.
In the United States, criminal networks across the country also imprison dogs and secretly train them up for fights.
In February, Dallas cops and animal rights groups stormed dozens of Texan compounds under “Operation Fight Club”.
Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/16594622/zoo-mafia-gangsters-turn-animals-war-machines-brit/