Killing of animals aggravated by cruelty and dangerous shooting, this is the final charge that Avezzano Chief Prosecutor Maurizio Cerrato officially charged Andrea Leombruni, a butcher from San Benedetto dei Marsi.
On June 25, 2024, the investigation into the killing of Orsa Amarena, a symbol of the Marsican bear population, was officially closed. After approximately 10 months, the investigation into the killing of Amarena, a bear that was a symbol and hope of the small population of Marsican bears confined for 100 years in the mountains of the Central Apennines within the boundaries of the National Park of Abruzzo, Lazio, and Molise and in its immediate surroundings, was officially closed. The killing of Amarena occurred for no reason during the night between August 31 and September 1, 2023, in San Benedetto dei Marsi, near the residence of the accused.
Immediately after the killing of Amarena, Salviamo l’Orso instructed the Pezone Law Firm, which has represented our interests for many years, to file a report to the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Avezzano. The report filed on September 3, 2023, will now allow us to access the results of the expert examinations ordered by the magistrate and prepare for the civil party representation of our association in the trial against the accused, in which we will participate through the legal firm representing us.
If the accused is convicted (a conviction we consider certain), we will seek a million-dollar compensation from Leombruni in civil court, compelling him to spend the coming years dealing with lawyers and courtrooms as it happened to the person who killed a bear in Pettorano in similar circumstances in 2014. If all goes well, we will use the money to help our bears. This was our promise to Amarena and all the Abruzzese and Italians who asked us last September to mobilize and commit ourselves so that this stupid and pointless violence against a bear and its cubs would not go unpunished. We will force the accused to frequently rethink the evening of August 31, 2023, and wonder if perhaps it would have been much better for him to call the park rangers and forget about the rifle; his chickens would certainly have cost him less.