Gli animali del fascismo: amici, nemici, inviolabili, esotici. L’uso politico degli animali nella via italiana al totalitarismo

This article provides a first survey of the political use of animals in the fascist regime. Like ecology, protection and hunting policies and the public representation of animals were also used to set up the message of unity and power of the Fascist State. «Useful» animals, such as dogs and work animals, contributed to autarky and reflected the good virtues of the Italians; «noxious» ones, as harmful to agriculture, were the object of ruthless and indiscriminate warfare; rare species were equated with the nation’s goods and beauties; exotic ones evoked the myth of imperial greatness. The result was a system in which humans, animals, plants formed a set of elements harmoniously fused together and arranged hierarchically: some creatures were subordinate to others and all to the State.