A very recent episode
Last weekend at parabiago a hunter shot a 12 month old female Rottweiler. This is the news, in reference to all the articles that have appeared and the social condemnation that has also hit our channels. Scrolling down the page you will find the position taken by Federcaccia Milano Monza e Brianza and its President Luca Agnelli, which helps us to understand the fact from another point of view, forgotten by the Bel Paese media, now concentrated on making visualizations and not on understand the truth of the facts. “It was quick to create the “monster”. A newspaper headline and a few posts on social media were enough. Because newspapers and social media said that a hunter shot a dog. Not that a dog attacked a hunter. So the truth is already written and the sentence has already been issued.
Dangerous and threatening races
If instead of the hunter there had been a child or a runner, what story would we be reading in the newspapers today? Perhaps of a torn person and another "monster": the dog's owner! Because woe betide anyone who says that certain breeds can be more dangerous and threatening than others: today there are only "bad owners" of very good dogs. No one wants to minimize what happened, the police have carried out the investigations and those responsible will establish what actually happened. But we turn to the institutions, from which in these hours heartfelt and authoritative appeals have been made for justice to be done, and we ask that yes, justice be done, starting from respect for the rules in force, which the institutions themselves must enforce. Because it is time that it was said that access to rustic lands (meadows and woods), both for men and dogs, is NOT free, but disciplined, and that that discipline does not apply only to hunters, but to all citizens . It's time we said that in this country, by virtue of an ordinance of the Ministry of Health still in force, the only places where dogs can NOT be kept on a leash are the "dog walking areas" delimited by fences complete with signs.
No supervision
It's time to say that supervision is absent in rural areas, with a Provincial Police force that has been demolished in numbers, and other bodies that pass on the responsibility of carrying out checks and sanctions. Because the open countryside belongs to everyone when it comes to doing their own thing, and it's a no-man's land when you have to exercise your own responsibility. After all, the countryside is the private property (sic!) of the farmer who does not fence it, but it is as if it were the company's warehouse, or the courtyard of a house, places in which without permission, for now it is forbidden enter without permission. In a period of health emergency, with African Swine Fever actually in the territory of our province, the ordinances of the Lombardy Region have imposed cleaning and disinfection protocols for the dogs of hunters and mushroom seekers; obviously they could say nothing about those who take dogs to run on agricultural land, simply because this is not permitted by law, but widely practiced, and all those dogs are potential vectors of the virus without any control. Instead of seeking easy consensus by shooting at hunters, it would be a good idea to start enforcing the laws in force." (Luca Agnelli – Provincial President of Federcaccia Milano Monza and Brianza).