Girl forced to swim with piranhas at circus

[Sweetpea]

Police have closed down a circus in southern Italy after a terrified 19-year-old girl was forced to swim in a tank full of piranha fish while her younger sister endured the company of snakes and tarantulas.

Three men have been arrested and charged with holding the Bulgarian girls in slavery and breaching international human rights conventions.
The trio, who are accused of running a "circus of horrors", were named as Enrico Raffaele Ingrassia, 57, the owner, his son William Ingrassia, 33, and his son in law Gaetano Belfiore, 25.

The Marino Circus has been offering shows at Petina south of Naples in southern Italy, in a tent with 200 plastic seats inside it

Teenage girl forced to swim with piranhas at circus - Times Online


It's really difficult to believe this sort of thing can actually be happening. I think it breaches a bit more than 'Human Rights'.

[poppy]

This is disgusting, Napoli seAms to be the place all these nasties try to go, they think they are so far out they will be overlooked by the authorities. They may have bigger worries than the police though. The local "families" have tougher ways of dealing with things like this.
One way or another I hope they will be harshly dealt with.

[poppy]

I just read about it on an Italian newspaper site, the police filmed three performances before arresting the family that an the circus.
The girls father was put to work as a labourer at the circus, and the mother worked a the cook. The mother managed to escape once but was found brought back and beaten, they starved them foe days when they first arrived, and then only let then eat scrap.
The girl who was put in with the snakes was bitten but not allowed to see a doctor.
Circus folk have a very bad rep in Italy, you can see why.

[Sweetpea]

It's like something out of the dark ages.

The Bulgarian family has now been moved to a safe house but their case highlights the plight of people caught up in human trafficking networks in Europe.
The European Union estimates that 500,000 people are affected by trafficking every year in Europe. In 2006, more than 100 Polish workers were freed from forced labour camps in the Puglia region of Italy where they had been promised seasonal farm-work.

[poppy]

It is awful they are enticed to Itally with promises of a better life and high wages, and end up enslaved. The red light districts there are all predominantly African and East European girls lured there and enslaved.
Parts of the country are still run by groups that seAm untouchable by the law. Only the bravest judges and police will sand against them.

[sara]

It's sickening to read. Those poor people to have to endure something that terrible. Wonder what will happen to the Bulgarian family now.