The text was voted on last week, and aims in particular to limit the proliferation of wild boars, but can apply to all fauna considered wild.
Italian lawmakers last week approved a plan to allow the capture and slaughter of wild animals in urban areas to contain wild boar roaming in cities like Rome. Parliament’s Budget Committee has given the green light to an amendment proposed by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s far-right Fratelli d’Italia party to the 2023 budget.
Called “wildlife control and containment”, it must be submitted to a vote before the end of the year. It allows the slaughter of wild animals in order, among other things, to reinforce road protection.
Fratelli d’Italia specifies that it is not a question of hunting but of “control” and affirms that the many wild boars wandering in public spaces are dangerous for citizens and motorists, in addition to the risk of spreading disease.
Lawsuits, road accidents, damage… Several stories about these wild boars have been publicized in recent years.
Rifles “loaded with sleeping pills”
Estimates put the number of wild boars in Italy at two million, and complaints against these animals are numerous. “The only way to contain their expansion is slaughter,” assured Marta Farolfi, deputy of the far-right party.
In the text however, the word boar does not appear, it is the term “wildlife” which is used, extending the possibility of this regulation to several species. The article calls for it to be possible to hunt wild species even in areas where hunting is prohibited, including protected areas and urban areas, and even on days when hunting is usually prohibited.
Faced with the criticism raised by this article, which gives the impression of giving free rein to the hunt anywhere, anytime, Tommaso Foti, Fratelli d’Italia deputy at the origin of this text, assured last week in La Repubblica that “rifles will be used, but loaded with sleeping pills”.
On the other hand, there will be “no shooting in public gardens” or on the grounds of the inhabitants, he assures. “Pretending that we want to bring hunters with shotguns to the Colosseum is too much,” he adds.
Local and regional police officers, the national forest police but also approved private hunters (having a hunting license and having received training) will be able to take part in the campaigns.
The article also provides for the possibility of using “for food consumption” the animal that has been slaughtered, if it passes the sanitary hygiene controls.
An “attack on our country’s biodiversity and wildlife”
Animal rights groups, for their part, believe that this measure could endanger protected species, considered to be part of the wild fauna, such as wolves. The member of the environmental group Angelo Bonelli criticizes on Twitter the possibility with this text of also attacking bears or even foxes.
He denounces an “attack on the biodiversity and wildlife of our country.”
“This outrageous approval ushers in a new season of slaughter,” said Massimo Vitturi, of the LAV association for animal rights. The Italian International Organization for the Protection of Animals (OIPA) estimated for its part that it could open the way to “indiscriminate killings of wild animals”.
Opposition groups have promised to take the case to the European Union to have this article annulled.
