Woman fined after taking turtle for a walk in Rome amid COVID-19 lockdown

Amid the unprecedented outbreak of deadly coronavirus, with major countries under lockdown, people have now been confined to their homes for several weeks. However, seeking a break from self-isolation, a 60-year-old woman in Rome decided to take her ‘pizza-sized’ pet turtle for a walk but was fined $440 by the police. 

Authorities around the world are having a relatively hard time in making people adhere to lockdown rules and practice social distancing. Even though self-isolation is seen as an effective way to combat the highly contagious virus, people are allowed to get out of their homes for essential services like visiting pharmacy shops, buying groceries, even taking pet dog for a walk. However, according to the Roman Police, the woman’s reason for being outdoors to walk her turtle is an “unjustifiable reason”.

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With the rising number of lockdown violations, Italian authorities reported on April 13 that they fined at least 16,545 people on Easter Monday, which was a national holiday with a majority of the citizens being Catholic. Moreover, according to reports, 13,756 fines were issued a day before that on April 12. Italians desperate to leave their homes amid COVID-19 lockdown have also been joking on social media to rent each other’s dogs. Roman Police spokesperson Nunzio Carbone told an international news agency that the turtle was “as big as a pizza” but was not wearing a leash.

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Person walks dogs dressed up as unicorn

In another unique incident of taking pet out for a walk, a person decided to wear attire of a unicorn for a walk around with the dogs. The 27-second-long video was shared on Reddit earlier this month. In the video, a person is seen dressed in a unicorn costume, happily walking the dogs. In the entire video, the person holding onto the leash of the dogs is seen excitedly walking and towards the end of the video, happily dances around with the dogs. 

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