First the uncertainty, now the official: in Abruzzo it will be possible to hunt the wood pigeon for another seven days, specifically until Wednesday 10 February 2016. The topic has been discussed a lot in the last few hours and the WWF he had made known his perplexities when the extension was still a hypothesis. According to the association, in fact, many hunters in good faith will carry out their activity in a situation of complete illegality, without forgetting the absence of environmental surveillance in the regional territory. As explained by Dino Pepe, regional councilor for hunting,Eco of Alto Molise and Alto Vastese, the junta voted yesterday in favor of the extension, so the hunting will be possible in three provinces of Abruzzo, Teramo, Chieti and Pescara.
What will happen now? The wood pigeon hunt will be the usual one, that is with temporary stalking, the rifle well guarded and unloaded in the scabbard and without any help from the dog. Now we need to understand the effective date of the extension. The wait for the vote was motivated by a delay in submitting the request, but now the conditional is no longer a must. The WWF is seriously concerned that other species are being hunted in addition to the wood pigeon.
Most of the Territorial Areas of Abruzzo Hunting and the various hunting associations have negatively commented on the behavior of the same Region on the occasion of the modification of the hunting calendar, in particular as regards the woodcock, now there is this resolution that could ease tensions. By the way, the current situation is the same as it was exactly one year ago. At the beginning of 2015, in fact, the junta approved an identical resolution to extend the hunt for wood pigeon until February 8. (two days less than what was established today).
The requests for other days of hunting have come from the provincial administrations of Teramo, Chieti and Pescara, after having acquired the opinion of theISPRA (Higher Institute of Environmental Protection and Research). Last year the Institute also established that hunting must not cause any kind of disturbance to water birds, the Peregrine Falcon and the Lanner Falcon: temporary stalking should not be located less than 500 meters from wetlands and rocky walls (or those partially such). In addition, hunting cannot be practiced inside SIC areas (Sites of Community Importance) in which the two hawks mentioned above are present. These are provisions from 365 days ago that cannot fail to be applied to these last seven days of withdrawal (pending further clarification).