A driver has been reported to police for allegedly taking a ferry journey with a PONY crammed into the boot of their Citroën C1.
The shocking scenes were filmed by a stunned tourist during the Pozzuoli–Ischia crossing in Italy on 5 July, as the mercury soared.
Footage shows the animal enduring the hour-long crossing squeezed into just a few cubic metres of space.
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The tourist, a Swiss woman, said she “alerted the onboard staff, who made me understand that they were already aware of the animal’s presence”.
However, no one from the ferry company apparently deemed it necessary to intervene, stop the vehicle from travelling or alert the authorities, as reported by Need To Know.
Animal rights activist Enrico Rizzi shared the footage online and asked: “How is it possible that nobody stopped that vehicle before it was loaded onto the ferry?
“Is it possible that no employee of the ferry company Medmar Navi Spa saw a pony crammed inside a small car?
“Is it possible that nobody thought it necessary to call the Carabinieri?
“And, if staff really were already aware of the animal’s presence, why was the journey allowed to go ahead anyway, given that we are dealing with a crime?”
Rizzi has reported the case to police in Pozzuoli, calling for the person responsible to be investigated for alleged animal cruelty and for any liability of those who allowed the animal to travel to be established.
He wrote: “Only a troglodyte could behave in such an inhumane way towards an animal.”
MP Francesco Emilio Borrelli has called for the animal’s owner to be identified and for the pony to be taken away from them “to protect its well-being”.
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