Animal rights activists freed 15,000 pheasants from a bird farm in Emilia-Romagna on Thursday, leaving a message comparing the farm to a Nazi concentration camp.
The perpetrators broke into the Old Agraria farm in Minerbio during the night by cutting wire fencing and then opened the doors to five of the 20 aviaries.
On the wall of one of the pheasant sheds they left a slogan in black spray paint reading ''1945-2008 - the Holocaust isn't over and nor is the Resistance''.
The message was unsigned but local police said their investigations would focus on animal rights groups.
Farm staff, who discovered the break-in on Friday morning, estimate the total damage at 10,000 euros.
The pheasants had escaped into surrounding countryside.
