An army medical officer who saved a pregnant cat’s life is facing a minimum of one year in jail for her actions.
Lieutenant Barbara Balanzoni has insisted she followed military regulations when the stray cat had a difficult birth, and was simply preventing a large-scale health hazard.
According to the military prosecutor’s indictment, Lt Balanzoni violated a written order not to “approach or be approached by wild, stray or unaccompanied animals” near the army facility known as the Italian Village.
Lt Balanzoni told The Guardian there were a lot of stray cats on the Nato base in Kosovo which were treated well by the troops, and on the day of the alleged incident, she had received a call saying one of them was making distressing noises.
The cat, later named Agata, had reportedly settled in an army pavilion to give birth but had encountered difficulties with a final, stillborn kitten.
Lt Balanzoni said the veterinary officer was away when she got the call, and told the paper: “Far from disobeying orders, I was following military regulations, which state that, in the absence of a vet, the medical officer should intervene.”
She has since returned to her civilian job as an anaesthetist in Tuscany, and now stands accused of “gross insubordination” for disobeying the order, signed by the commanding officer of the base in May 2012.
Without help Agata would probably have died, and Lt Balanzoni added: “If the cat had died, the entire area would have had to be disinfected.
“What is more, the surviving kittens could not have been fed. So they too would have died and created an even greater public health problem.”
But prosecutors disagree and say she might actually have been causing a health hazard, because she was bitten (which she described as “only a scratch”) and had to be taken to hospital in Germany for a rabies vaccine.
The case will go to trial on February 7.
The officer’s case has been taken up by Ente Nazionale Protezione Animali, Italy’s oldest animal protection agency, and a question is to be tabled to the defence minister in the Senate straight after Christmas.
