It was a call that Arcangelo Caressa, a professional dog trainer in southern Italy, had never imagined he’d get. Early one morning last week, one of his staff members went to open the kennel where Mr. Caressa’s 6-year-old bloodhound slept at night.
The pup, Bruno, was lying on the ground, dead.
Grief was quickly compounded by horror when it became clear that there had been foul play: In the kennel near Bruno’s body, Mr. Caressa discovered treats and sausages stuffed with nails. Bruno had apparently gorged on the treats, which had been designed to kill him.
“If they had done it to me, I would have suffered less than how much I suffered with the dog, they knew this would affect me deeply,” said Mr. Caressa, who runs the canine training section of Endas, a national volunteer association, and operates a public animal rescue organization in Taranto, a coastal city in the Puglia region.
Bruno’s killing has prompted a national outpouring of support and grief, even from the highest office in the land. “Heartbreaking news. A vile, cowardly, unacceptable act,” Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni wrote on social media, posting a photograph of her with Bruno. “Thank you for all you have done, Bruno.”
The killing has the trappings of a noir: A beloved victim, nationally recognized for his service. A cunning plot. And a justice-seeking survivor in Mr. Caressa.
“You killed him, making him suffer for hours,” Mr. Caressa wrote in a Facebook post addressing Bruno’s killer. The page has since been filled with tributes and pleas to find the perpetrators.
The Carabinieri, Italy’s military police, said they were investigating Bruno’s killing under a new animal cruelty law in Italy, which went into effect this month. They have not announced any suspects.
Bruno ended up in Mr. Caressa’s care four and a half years ago, he said. “Fundamentally, he was a moody curmudgeon,” he said in a telephone interview. “He decided when he wanted to be petted, he decided when he wanted to eat. He was unique.”
The bloodhound was at his best in rescue mode, he said. A decorated sniffer dog, he was credited with finding nine people who had been lost or disappeared, including Alzheimer’s patients and children. His honors included a commendation by the prime minister.
Some Italian news media reports have speculated that Bruno was targeted by organized crime groups that are involved in illegal dogfighting rings that police and prosecutors have sought to crack down on.
Mr. Caressa dismissed that possibility, saying that Bruno wasn’t involved in investigating dogfighting.
Investigators are looking into Bruno’s killing under Italy’s so-called Brambilla law, a new statute that makes animal cruelty or torture punishable by up to four years in prison and a fine of 60,000 euros if the animal is killed.
“Italy had been waiting for this law for 25 years,” said Michela Vittoria Brambilla, the center-right lawmaker and animal rights activist for whom the law is nicknamed.
In an interview, Ms. Brambilla said that she, too, had filed a report with prosecutors in Taranto regarding Bruno’s killing.
“At the thought of such boundless cruelty, one should be ashamed of belonging to the human race,” she wrote on her website.
For now, Mr. Caressa and the rest of the country waits. He has shared with investigators his theories of people who might have wanted to harm Bruno. His Facebook page continues to fill with tributes from all over the world, calling for justice and applauding Bruno’s work.
But among the tributes is a more unpolished emotion, too — the universal grief of a man who’s lost a loved one.
“Hi Bru, it’s your human brother,” Mr. Caressa posted over the weekend, between photos and renderings of Bruno with angel’s wings.
“You weren’t just a dog,” he wrote. “You were, you are, and you always will be my hero.”
Ali Watkins covers international news for The Times and is based in London.
Elisabetta Povoledo is a Times reporter based in Rome, covering Italy, the Vatican and the culture of the region. She has been a journalist for 35 years.
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