The story of the complaint against chef Carlo Cracco by an animal rights association has had a new development: the judge of the famous Sky program "Masterchef" had been accused a few weeks ago byAIDAA (Italian Association for the Defense of Animals and the Environment) incitement to commit a crime after having cooked a pigeon-based recipe during an episode (renamed for the occasion "Pigeon my way"). The Milan Public Prosecutor's Office has requested in the last few hours the dismissal of the proceedings, as reported by theHandle, especially taking into account one fact. In practice, the law protects the wild pigeon and not the breeding one, as happened in the case of Cracco, a bird that is not subject to special forms of protection.
According to the association, the starred chef could have pushed other people to "commit the same crimes", violating the European and Italian regulations regarding wildlife. The story had taken on incredible contours immediately after the lawsuit with about fifteen alleged vegans in front of Cracco's restaurant in Milan, calling him a "murderer" for cooking animals. In that case the slogans continued until the arrival of the police. The fears of the past few days have proved to be well founded.
Usually, in fact, the AIDAA complaints and complaints end up in the same way as a soap bubble and they run aground even before going live, so much so as to make us think of sensational actions to attract attention and talk about the association. The certificates of solidarity towards the chef from Veneto were however numerous. Particularly, Federfauna, the trade union confederation that brings together breeders, traders and animal keepers, has not ruled out a criminal prosecution and has said it is willing to publicly offer the assistance of their lawyers to Cracco. Federfauna also underlined how the recipe cannot be considered a crime, but only the enhancement of an Italian production, as frequently happens at Masterchef.
The filing of the Milanese prosecutor could therefore have been foreseen well in advance. Lorenzo Croce, president of AIDA, however, stated that such a decision was expected and that probably for the prosecutor "the life of an animal has no value". Furthermore, Croce is convinced that there has been no verification of the origin of the cooked pigeon. Among other things, a second complaint would remain on the table aimed at ascertaining whether Cracco has misled the spectators, making them believe that even wild pigeons can be killed and prepared in the kitchen.