![\"Arcangelo](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/c1f0\/live\/175933e0-5b3d-11f0-b5c5-012c5796682d.jpg.webp\")
Arcangelo Caressa\/Facebook<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\nAn Italian sniffer dog was killed after eating sausages filled with nails that were thrown into his kennel, his trainer has said.<\/p>\n
Bruno, a seven-year-old bloodhound, had been hailed as a hero for finding nine missing people during his career, and was once honoured by Italy’s prime minister.<\/p>\n
Giorgia Meloni condemned the “vile, cowardly, unacceptable” killing in a post on X. “Thank you for all you have done, Bruno,” she said.<\/p>\n
The dog’s trainer, Arcangelo Caressa, said he knew who was responsible and vowed to make them pay for their actions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
It has been suggested the killing was carried out as revenge for Bruno’s role in dismantling dog fighting rings.<\/p>\n
“Today I died with you,” Mr Caressa said in a Facebook post announcing Bruno’s death.<\/p>\n
He said he found the dog – who, he says, he saw as a “brother” – on Friday morning in his kennel at the Endas search and rescue training centre in Taranto, Puglia.<\/p>\n
“You fought your whole life to save humans and now it was a human who did this to you,” he added. “You were, you are and you will continue to be my hero.”<\/p>\n
The trainer said Italy’s police and prosecutor’s office had launched a joint investigation into the killing.<\/p>\n
Addressing the culprits, Mr Caressa said: “I know who you are, and you will pay for it.”<\/p>\n
He told local media had received death threats in the weeks leading up to Bruno’s death. <\/p>\n
“It wasn’t a random gesture. They want me to step aside. But I will never give in. This is a vile attack, done for money and revenge,” he told the Corriere della Sera newspaper.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Italian MP and animal rights activist Michela Vittoria Brambilla has urged the police to bring those responsible to justice.<\/p>\n
She suggested Bruno had been targeted by criminals because of his role in seizing dogs used in fighting. <\/p>\n
A newly strengthened law, spearheaded by Brambilla, can punish anyone who kills an animal using torture by up to four years in prison and a \u20ac60,000 (\u00a351,000) fine.<\/p>\n
Brambilla has called for this law to be applied due to Bruno’s “long and painful death” from internal bleeding, brought on by the nail-filled sausages.<\/p>\n
“We owe it to this noble animal,” she said in a statement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n