Exotic Animals From Italy's Underworld Get Second Chance

In ancient Rome, they would have been pitted against gladiators or served up at banquets.Now a caiman, a python and a troop of monkeys that have been confiscated from mobsters, drug dealers or collectors find safe haven at a rescue centre in the Eternal City.  Inside the majestic Appia Antica park near the historic city centre, a veterinary clinic called "Our Animal Kingdom" is now home to exotic turtles, deer, boars, parrots, vultures, eagles and even a group of excitable lemurs.  Every year, Italy's police and forest guard rescue around 400 exotic animals, according to Raffaele Manicone, head of the local branch of CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

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