Following its approval by the Regional Council of Lombardy, Article 9 of Regional Law no. 22/2026 (2026–2028 budget adjustment with amendments to regional laws, BURL no. 33 of 11 August 2026) amended Articles 105 and 112 of Regional Law no. 33/2009.
Since Regional Law no. 22/2026 came into force, it has been prohibited in Lombardy to use or exhibit animals for begging, regardless of the animal’s age or condition. Breaches are punished with a doubled administrative fine and mandatory confiscation of the animal. The crux of the reform is the relationship between the wording of the provision, which lays down mandatory confiscation, and the reform’s declared purpose, namely the protection of animal welfare, which instead calls for a case-by-case assessment.
Specifically, Article 105(1)(a) of Regional Law no. 33/2009 already prohibited begging “by exhibiting animals under twelve months of age, animals that are neglected, undernourished, in poor health, otherwise suffering or in such a condition as to arouse pity”, but this wording limited the provision’s applicability, since it depended on the conditions it listed being met.
These difficulties of application led the legislature to intervene again.
As Article 8 of the explanatory report to bill no. 193 makes clear, “the proposed amendment of Articles 105 and 112 of Regional Law 33/2009, introduced by way of amendment, aims on the one hand to broaden the punishable conduct relating to begging with animals and, on the other, to tighten the penalties for these practices, which harm the health and welfare of the animals themselves […] with the proposal in question, by contrast, anyone who uses or exhibits animals of any age and in any condition for begging is punished outright”.
Article 105(1)(a) of Regional Law 33/2009 – as reworded by Article 9 of Regional Law 22/2026 – removes every reference to the animal’s age and condition.
The ban is general, and applies both to those who exhibit the animal and to those who use it in any other way.
Before the reform
Art. 105 – Obligations and prohibitions:
It is prohibited:
a) to beg by exhibiting animals under twelve months of age, animals that are neglected, undernourished, in poor health, otherwise suffering or in such a condition as to arouse pity.
After the reform
Art. 105 – Obligations and prohibitions:
It is prohibited:
a) to use or exhibit animals for the purpose of begging.
As mentioned, Article 9 of Regional Law no. 22/2026 also amended the wording of Article 112 of Regional Law 33/2009, which sets out the penalties applicable in the cases covered by the law. Through this intervention, as the above-mentioned explanatory report clarifies, “the administrative fine is increased from a minimum of 150 euros and a maximum of 900 euros to a minimum of 300 euros and a maximum of 1,800 euros, thereby doubling the statutory range. It is also made explicit that the fine is accompanied by the ancillary penalty of confiscation.”
The “new” letter 0a) of Article 112(1) of Regional Law 33/2009 provides for a minimum fine of 300.00 euros and a maximum of 1,800.00 euros, together with mandatory confiscation of the animal, for failure to comply with Article 105(1)(a). Other breaches of Article 105 remain subject to the previous penalty.
The penalties laid down in Article 112 of Regional Law 33/2009 remain administrative in nature, and apply only where the conduct does not constitute a criminal offence, as made clear by the saving clause contained in the article itself.
Before the reform
Art. 112 – Penalties:
Without prejudice to cases of criminal liability, the following penalties apply: a) from 150 euros to 900 euros for failure to comply with Article 105(1)(a), (b), (c), (d) and (f), and paragraphs 2, 6 and 7.
After the reform
Art. 112 – Penalties:
Without prejudice to cases of criminal liability, the following penalties apply:
0a) from 300.00 euros to 1,800.00 euros and mandatory confiscation of the animal for failure to comply with Article 105(1)(a); for the purposes of confiscation, the animal is seized under Article 13 of Law no. 689/1981;
a) from 150 euros to 900 euros for failure to comply with Article 105(1)(b), (c), (d) and (f), and paragraphs 2, 6 and 7.
The main aim of the reform is therefore the protection of the welfare and health of animals; consequently, to ensure that it is effective, the application of the fine and of the confiscation of the animal must still be assessed case by case, avoiding any automatic mechanism.
Examining the specific case is all the more necessary given that, under the current legal framework, begging – understood as asking for alms – is not a criminal offence: Article 670 of the Criminal Code, headed “mendicancy”, was repealed by Law no. 205/1999; what remains punishable, under Article 600-octies of the Criminal Code, is the use of minors for begging, and organising, aiding, inducing or forcing others to beg.
It follows that a person begging in the street, even with an animal, does not by that fact alone commit any offence: the conduct may amount to a criminal offence under the Criminal Code, such as the offence under Article 544-ter of the Criminal Code – animal cruelty, where the objective and subjective elements required by that provision are present; or, where those elements are not met but the animal is nonetheless used to collect money in ways that put its welfare at risk, in Lombardy only the administrative penalty introduced by the reform will apply.
Even in this second case, however, it must be established that the animal’s welfare is actually compromised, so as to prevent the removal of the animal from its owner, where there is an established bond of affection, from turning into harm to the animal itself.
Like Lombardy, many other regions have introduced a ban on begging with animals, for example Tuscany, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Piedmont and Apulia.
Compared with the regional laws mentioned above, following the reform Lombardy stands out for the severity of its system of penalties.
It should be noted, however, that although the amount of the fine has been doubled, the real punitive force of the rules lies not so much in the sum to be paid as in the confiscation of the animal.
People who beg are, in all likelihood, in such poverty that the fine, however high, is hard to collect and has no real deterrent effect. Confiscation, by contrast, directly affects the offender’s property, and often a bond of affection.
It is therefore the confiscation measure that is the provision’s real punitive instrument.
On confiscation, a comparison with Piedmont’s regional law is instructive: under Article 8(2) of Regional Law no. 16/2024, preventive seizure with a view to confiscation is only a possible measure, applicable only “if it is established that there is no bond of affection between the keeper and the animal”; otherwise the animal remains with its keeper, after identification and registration in the animal registry.
The Piedmont legislature therefore wrote the check on the bond of affection into the provision itself, making it the condition for applying the confiscation measure.
The Lombardy regional law, by contrast, makes confiscation mandatory and regulates the seizure of the animal as a necessary step towards it, without making either conditional on any check of the bond of affection.
The protection of the animal’s welfare, the declared purpose of the reform, is left to the enforcement practice of the inspecting authorities, whose task it is to avoid automatic decisions and to assess case by case whether removing the animal would harm the animal itself.
