Police in Catania say a dog has been caught on CCTV allegedly trained by its owner to dump rubbish illegally, highlighting growing fly-tipping problems in the city. Security footage from the San Giorgio area shows the black dog carrying a bag of refuse to a roadside dumping spot on two separate occasions before returning to its owner, who remains out of view.
“Inventiveness can never become an alibi for incivility,” the city of Catania said in a Facebook post accompanying the videos. Officials noted that the behavior was “cunning but doubly wrong,” both for polluting the city and for exploiting an unwitting animal in the process.
Fly-tipping has risen since Catania introduced door-to-door waste collections, which require residents to separate food, paper, plastic, glass, and metal on different days. Many locals find the sorting process inconvenient, opting to dump trash on roadsides at night instead. Authorities are responding by installing additional security cameras and inspecting rubbish for identifying evidence such as bills or receipts. A recent sweep led to 39 people being sanctioned for illegal dumping.
Police have opened an investigation to identify the dog’s owner. A spokesperson, speaking anonymously, said, “Unfortunately, fly-tipping is very common here. Many people cannot be bothered to divide their rubbish, hence dumping it.” The unusual case underscores both the challenges of enforcing waste regulations and the lengths some residents will go to circumvent them.
