The City Council of Catania, Sicily, classifies the ploy to evade the video surveillance cameras installed to combat illegal waste disposal as “as cunning as it is doubly wrong”.
After one causing a blackout, we thought we had seen it all. We were mistaken.
A man in Catania, a port city in Sicily, trained your dog to deposit bags of rubbish on the side of the road in an attempt to escape from video surveillance cameras installed to combat illegal waste disposal, said the Italian municipal police.
The episode was reported on the official Facebook page of the city of Catania. Accompanying a video of the dog, the police left the note that “the creativity can never serve as an alibi for incivility.”
The images released by the municipality show a small dog trotting along Via Pulacara, in the neighborhood of São Jorge, in Catania, with a bag of rubbish in his mouth, which he then Carefully drop it next to the sidewalk.
“The environmental unit of the Catania municipal police released two videos recorded by monitoring cameras, in which a dog is seen depositing a bag of waste on public roads,” says the statement published on Facebook.
Authorities stated that the scene left no room for doubt: the animal had been trained to prevent the owner from being filmed dumping rubbish illegally.
The behavior was “as cunning as doubly wrong“, polluting the city and trying to get around the rules at the expense of a pet that knew nothing about. “Respect for urban decorum and the environment is everyone’s duty.”
However, according to , the man was identified and fined.
Illegal waste disposal is a persistent problem in Italyparticularly in the south of the country, with environmental and economic costs significant. In 2023, more than 9,300 waste-related offenses were recorded — a 66% increase compared to the previous year.
In response, municipalities are increasingly resorting to installing video surveillance cameras, camera traps in the style of those used in wildlife observation, and intelligent monitoring systemsto stop illegal dumping and the misuse of recycling bins.
The strategy, often associated with efforts to improve waste collection and urban cleaning, is based on video evidence to impose fines heavy.
In Palermo, hundreds of chambers and traps photographs in all neighborhoods of the city. The authorities state that 93% of fines for illegal waste disposal result from evidence collected by cameras.
According to Italian legislation, the unauthorized abandonment of wasteincluding bags of household waste, can result in fines of between 1,500 and 18,000 euros, with the possibility of criminal proceedings being initiated.
