Palermo (gro) The “Lega del Cane” (“Association of Dog Lovers”) has proclaimed a “Dog Adoption Day” for November 6 in Palermo. Because the central dog asylum of the island capital must be urgently reorganized and extended. The work will last about 18 months according to the present planning. During this time only a fraction of the home places is available in the Tierasyl. In numbers, this means: From January 2017, there will only be space for a maximum of 40 stray dogs instead of 250 for one and a half years. In Palermo live over 10,000 of these special four-legged friends. They thus contribute about 1 percent of the population. Palermo’s stray dogs are a phenomenon for behavioral scientists. The magazine of the Romans “Repubblica” dedicated a report of several pages to the dogs of Palermo already two years ago.
“I look you in the eye, man”.
Palermo’s dogs, whose behavior is generally considered reserved and downright dignified, have adapted very well to the human society of their city. Aggressive begging is strictly frowned upon. Our “amici dei quattro zampe” of Palermo, says Gabriele Marchese, responsible at the municipality among other things for the Palermo dog system, understand themselves in any case outstandingly on the distanced, but not less insistently requesting into the eye look. The partly massive, often hectic traffic of the megacity is, as can be observed at any time, closely observed by the dogs and mastered with great circumspection when crossing wide, multi-lane roads. Often a large, experienced male dog is sent ahead, which quickly recognizes gaps in the traffic flow and guides his followers safely across the road.
Morning and night regular food.
With over 10,000 stray dogs, an asylum for 250 dogs, one should find at least on first reflection, is little more than a drop in the ocean. 
On the other hand, quite a few of these dogs have at least loose ties to human society. For example, to one of the many hundred pubs and to quite a few restaurants of the city, which they guard at night with great attention and are rewarded for it with a meal in the morning. The subtropical climate ensures that the four-legged friends can spend the night outdoors all year round without any harm. In addition, quite a few private individuals, mostly elderly women, but also aged men, keep a certain, generally well-defined flock of dogs loose by serving them at a certain place late at night the leftovers of the day, possibly enriched with a few particularly nutritious ingredients, on a somewhat regular basis.
The asylum lives mainly on private donations.
The dog asylum of the Italy-wide “Lega per la difesa del Cane”, Palermo section, primarily serves four-legged friends in need of help, heavily pregnant bitches or sick, injured and newly born animals. About 100 people work there, 40 of them in 
permanent employment, also a large part of the veterinarians working there are volunteers. The annual budget, which totals 100,000 euros, is raised mainly through private donations, as well as through income from campaigns organized by the Palermo Section. Among these this year is the project “Naked for Love”. It is the production of a calendar for 2017, whose individual monthly pages show photographs of volunteers of the dog shelter in the adam costume, all, male and female, at work with the animals. They are comparatively chastising pictures, which ensure lively reception. Several hundred copies of these calendars have already been drawn in advance sales.
The refuge in the green lung of Palermo.
Somewhat relieving the central dog asylum of the big city of Palermo are smaller animal shelters, built on properties confiscated by the judiciary because of proven mafia affiliation of their former owners.
But this, too, is only the famous (usually quickly evaporating) drop in the bucket. Clearly more one promises oneself from the “action adoption” on 6 November in the dog asylum in the middle in the royal park Favorita at the foot of the Monte Pellegrino. The park with its 400 hectares of pine forest, its meadows and evergreen shrubs, was created by Ferdinand IV from 1815 as the surroundings of his exile residence and today forms the green lung between the city area and the foothills of the former cosmopolitan city of Palermo, already sung about by Goethe.