Since the beginning of its activity, the Anti-poison Dog Unit of the Carabinieri Forestry Corps command deployed at Foreste Casentinesi-Monte Falterona-Campigna National Park (Station of La Verna - Vallesanta) has carried out several interventions, both within the Park area and in other places in Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna.
And unfortunately the number of positive results, i.e. inspections during which poison baits or carcasses of poisoned animals are found, keeps increasing, showing how the illegal use of poison is a recurring practice both in towns and in grazing, hunting, and truffle-hunting areas.
Among the latest inspections undertook by the Anti-poison Dog Unit of the Carabinieri Forestry Corps command at Foreste Casentinesi Park, three took place at the beginning of November 2017 in the municipality of Caprese Michelangelo, in the province of Arezzo. Two wolves had already been poisoned last February in the same area.
This time, the poison victims were four shepherd dogs or, at least, the four dogs were the only victims to be found.
The Anti-poison Dog Unit, alerted by the fellow Carabinieri Forestry Corps of Pieve S. Stefano that had found three dead dogs, carried out three difficult inspections in the area, used as sheep pasture, and thanks to the unerring sense of smell of dogs Puma and Titán,  and to the skill of their conductor, four sausages and a fourth dead dog were found.
The sausage meat was mixed with blackish granules which are very likely to be toxic.
Removing the sausages and the carcass has undoubtedly limited the damage, preventing other animals to eat them, but it is nonetheless possible, in spite of the very careful inspection carried out in the area by the Unit, that some wild animal ingested the poison in the area, and then left it to die elsewhere.
The investigation, still ongoing, aims at identifying the authors and their motives.