Caccia: Piedmont, AA.VV express disappointment at the work of the Region

Hunting: Piedmont, the Hunting Associations express all their disappointment on the work of the Region regarding the management of the hunting activity and the contents of the new Hunting Calendar, “Tabula rasa”.

June 5, 2015 is likely to be a day to mark on the calendar, at least for Piedmontese Hunters. In Turin, at the offices of the Agriculture Department, Hunting and Fishing of the Piedmont Region, a “consultation table” was held by Giorgio Ferrero, to whom the President Chiamparino had given the powers of hunting activity last year. The Councilor's idea, laudable in its intentions albeit rather late, was to discuss hunting and hunting calendar, bringing together around the same table the representatives of the Region, of Territorial Hunting Areas (ATC) and Alpine Districts (CA), of the Agricultural, Environmental and Animal Associations and, of course, Hunting Associations recognized pursuant to l. 157/92. It all started a few weeks earlier when the Piedmontese AAVV Coordination had expressed its deep disappointment for the 2015/16 calendar just voted, not in keeping with current regulations and highly penalizing for the subalpine hunting world. It was only the culmination of a relationship born in July 2014, and that the Hunting Associations (AAVV) have always tried to develop with the utmost respect and a spirit of collaboration, but immediately undermined by a regional agenda that in accordance with the the hunting world has always favored acquiescence to animal welfare forces (letter to the Councilor dated 04/07/14 signed by: Pro Natura, LAC, WWF, LIPU, LAV, CAI-TAM), so much so that it intervenes without appreciable scientific reasons on the calendar already voted to block the hunt for the typical alpine fauna, which has always been a consolidated Piedmontese tradition.

How it ended is well known, with AAVV and CA, forced to a double round of appeals, both won but made useless by the dubious decisions of Corso Stati Uniti which in the end has seen fit to solve the problem ... in the Italian way: the TAR gives you reason, well then we will remove the ptarmigan from huntable species! What regularly happened with the bad calendar of this year, from which it was excluded. And then, what about the regional hunting law, missing for over three years and still "bogged down" between one office and another, between a legal opinion and the ... necessary political comfort!

The Piedmontese Hunters, just to point out, only try to exercise their passion by virtue of a state law, voted in Italy and not on Mars, valid everywhere but only here by us so weakened as to make the over 27.000 practitioners of ours Region children ... of a lesser God! Piedmontese Hunters pay robust regional and national taxes, participation fees in hunting activities; reimburse agricultural damage caused by wildlife and manage the environment; they have no open accounts with justice, a rather interesting feature at a time like the present, with politics and institutions often in shambles, and the bad example that is told to us every day by TV and newspapers.

We asked the councilor for respect and substantial changes to the calendar voted by the council, receiving in exchange very polite refusals, nice words, many promises, countless ... maybe. Little! Too little for us, and almost nothing for the many fans. The useless passing of time only risks being deleterious, preventing us from taking any action in defense of our category, delegating the resolution of the problem to the will of the Region, rather than to common sense and respect for the law. On 6 May, AAVV coordination still united and compact, we had anticipated it to Giorgio Ferrero, specifying how the measure of the Piedmontese Hunters was now full and patience was over.

We had given time until the beginning of June to define appropriate changes that would align our calendar with that of all the other Italian regions, and this also to avoid a new costly recourse to the TAR. Now drawing up the balance sheet of the last month, we bitterly note how to remedy its mistakes the Region has done too little, to say almost nothing, considering in addition that a ... consultation table must be set up before drafting the document, and not after when the patch is only put on the hole and the damage has already been created and consolidated. We were not consulted before, and now our grievances are read as if they were an act of treason.

This is not good, and it is clear how something is wrong, the relationship is frayed and our interlocutor is disinterested in our needs; we must protect our associates, work with the agricultural world to solve the problem of damage, seek a dialogue with that healthy and moderate environmentalism that is the norm abroad and we are sure it also exists with us, resume a path of collaboration and reciprocity respect with politics. The undersigned Piedmontese Hunting Associations have thus decided to appeal to the TAR, entrusting the mandate to Prof. Paolo Scaparone, who already won the last two, certain with this to protect the interests of the entire hunting world of our Region, no one excluded, including the silent ones or those who do not have our membership cards.
The space for a negotiation with the Department still exists, but it is there.

This new "table", tabula in Latin, will be rewritten, in terms of intentions, competences, and therefore in the final objective, which must be a new fair and equitable hunting calendar. Let's start again, if we really want to do it, but, as the ancient Romans wisely said, first let's do ... a clean sweep!

The Regional Presidents:

Antonio Cardillo (ANUU Migrators)
Giorgio Cugno (Italcaccia)
Bruno Morena (Federcaccia Piedmont)
Fabrizio Lenzi (Enalcaccia)
Matteo Viglietta (EPS)
Giovanni Gallinaro (ANLC)