Fondazione Cave Canem

Fondazione Cave Canem ETS was set up in Rome on 24 June 2019 and describes itself as a women-led non-profit working for a better future for both animals and people. Its field team is made up of professional dog trainers (educatori cinofili), and much of its work happens inside Italy's public and private dog shelters (canili), where many dogs spend months or years in kennels.

Its best-known projects include Io non combatto, run with Humane Society International (now Humane World for Animals), which takes in dogs rescued from illegal dog fighting and puts them through behavioural rehabilitation; Gruppo Coraggio, a specialist team that works with fearful and phobic dogs in shelters so they have a real chance of adoption; and Fuori dalle gabbie, which trains people in prison to care for shelter dogs. The foundation reports that this last project has involved prisons in Spoleto, Naples and Rome and helped 166 dogs.

Cave Canem also runs an emergency fund and has sent teams to help animals and their owners after floods in Emilia-Romagna and the Marche, the collapse of the Vele di Scampia buildings in Naples and the 2026 landslide at Niscemi in Sicily. It campaigns against keeping dogs on chains and against the puppy trade, and its Cave Canem Academy runs training courses for shelter staff, vets and police.

You can support the foundation with a donation, a distance adoption (adozione a distanza) of a dog, or by choosing it for your 5x1000 on your Italian tax return. It is part of the Transnational Giving Europe network, so donors in some other European countries can also claim tax relief.