Tourists heading to one Italian city may be charged a fee for each day they bring their dog along with them.
South Tyrol, which is a province located in northeast Italy, draws visitors in with its mountainous landscapes and historic sites.
However, a new draft law could be brought in next year, aimed at tourists with pooches.
The proposed rule would see visitors cough up €1.50 (£1.31) each day, per pet, according to Italian publication Ansa.
Locals won’t be exempt, however, and could be charged around €100 (£87.28) a year for owning a dog.
The area previously had a dog tax in place but this was scrapped 16 years ago.
In the meantime, genetic testing has been used in the last couple of years instead to help catch owners who didn’t clean up after their dogs.
This involved a compulsory dog DNA registration which reportedly cost from £37.
South Tyrol, which is a province located in northeast Italy , draws visitors in with its mountainous landscapes and historic sites
However, a new draft law could be brought in next year, aimed at tourists with pooches (stock)
However, not many people followed the rule and it was hard to implement – according to the New York Times, only 12,000 of 30,000 dog owners registered.
Those who did log their pooches on the database will reportedly be exempt from the tax for two years.
Dog owners who don’t clean up their pet’s waste from streets could face fines of between €200 and €600 (£174 and £523), in a bid to keep the area tidy.
However, the new proposed rule has been hit with backlash from animal rights group Italian Association for the Defense of Animals and the Environment (AIDDA).
The group called the move ‘pure madness’.
‘This tax is pure madness and contrasts with what happens in the rest of Italy, where no taxes are paid on pet ownership,’ they told Ansa.
The group even went on to urge people to ‘immediate boycott it’ and pushed authorities to ‘backtrack’ on the plans.
Another organisation, the Italian National Animal Protection Agency, also slammed the proposals.
The proposed rule would see visitors cough up €1.50 (£1.31) each day, per pet, according to Italian publication Ansa
According to the Independent, the group’s president Carla Rocchi said: ‘After the resounding and costly failure of the absurd dog DNA project, instead of focusing on civic education, targeted checks, and citizen awareness, we’re once again choosing the easy way out: taxing animals and their owners.’
‘This measure not only penalises families and tourists who choose to travel with their dogs, but also sends a profoundly flawed message: turning animals into taxpayers’ cash machines.’
She felt it could push people to abandon their dogs or discourage ‘responsible travel’.
Meanwhile, provincial councillor Luis Walcher defended the proposed rule.
He said: ‘This is a fair measure because it concerns dog owners exclusively. Otherwise, sidewalk cleaning would be the responsibility of the entire community, when it must be said that the only filth on our city streets is dog waste.’
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