The horrific killing an Italian police bloodhound has sparked a criminal investigation to seek out his killers after the dog was found dead on July 4 in his shed in southern Taranto.
The dog’s trainer, Arcangelo Caressa, said the dog, Bruno, a seven-year-old, 195-pound bloodhound, had been fed bits of pet food laced with nails and suspected the killing was revenge against him and never the dog.
“It was deliberately a horrific act to cause the dog intense suffering, because feeding him bites crammed with nails means tearing apart his insides, tearing apart his esophagus and internal organs and causing excruciating pain,” Caressa told The Associated Press of Bruno, who helped find nine people over the course of his sniffer-dog rescue profession.
This photo made available Tuesday, July 8, 2025 and brought Friday Jan. 4, 2025, shows bits of pet food laced with nails that were fed to a police dog, the 7-year-old bloodhound Bruno, killing him, his trainer Arcangelo Caressa said.
AP Photo/Arcangelo Caressa
In a Facebook post announcing Bruno’s death, Caressa wrote, “Today I died with you… You fought on your whole life to assist human beings, and it was humans who did this to you.”
“When a relative of yours needs Bruno, he won’t be there. I thank the Prosecutor’s Office and the police forces who’re jointly trying to find those chargeable for this heinous crime,” Caressa added.
Caressa said that he had told prosecutors that he suspected that he was the final word goal of Bruno’s killers, and that Bruno was killed “to get to me.”
Caressa runs a volunteer public animal rescue organization, ENDAS, that, amongst other things, rescues dogs from illegal dogfights. He said the service was run by for-profit firms and said he suspected that his competitors were behind Bruno’s killing.
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“In recent months, we’ve got received threats, acts of persecution, defamation and slander from certain individuals who’ve already been investigated up to now and are known to the judicial authorities, who’ve been trying in every strategy to take over this rescue service by despicable means,” Caressa told the outlet.
Caressa said that Bruno was “a large” and when he went out on a search “you set his harness on, there was nobody else like him.”
“He would set off, smell the person we were in search of and run like a train until we found them,” Caressa added.
Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, said that Bruno’s slaughter was “vile, cowardly, unacceptable.”
“Thanks for all the things you probably did, Bruno,” she added, sharing a photograph with the dog after considered one of his rescues.
Lawmaker Michael Vittoria Brambilla, a longtime animal rights activist, filed a criminal grievance with prosecutors under a brand new law that she helped push through stiffening penalties for anyone who kills or mistreats an animal.
“I ask the police to make every effort to be certain that the person chargeable for the death of the dog Bruno is dropped at justice and responds in response to the brand new rules of the #BrambillaLaw, which provides for individuals who kill an animal using services or intentionally prolonging their suffering as much as 4 years in prison and 60 thousand euro nice,” she wrote on Facebook.
“Probably the one who committed this act of negligence didn’t do it out of blind cruelty, but with a precise purpose, because Bruno had contributed to confiscating dogs utilized in fighting.
“For a greater reason … the wrongdoer should be identified and the punishment prescribed by the Brambilla law must be applied.
“We owe it to this noble animal, victim of a vile and unscathed hand.”
The brand new animal protection law, referred to as the Brambilla law, went into effect on July 1 and calls for as much as 4 years in prison and a 60,000-euro (around a C$97,000) nice, with the stiffest penalties applied if the mistreatment is committed in front of youngsters or is filmed and disseminated online.
In a second post on July 6, Caressa wrote, “Hi Bru, it’s your human brother talking to you. I’m sure you’re still by my side, despite the fact that I can never caress you again like I used to daily.”
“Lately all we do is discuss you, and I’m sure that from where you might be you watching all the things,” he continued.
“Possibly twinkling between the celebs, or possibly you’re watching us silently, with those good eyes that said all the things without words needed.”
Caressa said he was “so proud” of Bruno “for what you may have been for me and for all of the people to whom you brought comfort, hope, salvation.”
“You weren’t only a dog. You were my loyal shadow, my strength at midnight times,” he wrote. “You were, you might be and at all times shall be my hero.”
“I’ll do justice to you by all means. Since you deserve truth, respect, memory,” Caressa added. “He who saves a life never dies, you reside now within the hearts you may have guided home.”
— with files from The Associated Press
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