The much discussed referendum on hunting in Piedmont will take place on June 3, 2012 as established by the decree signed by the President of the Region Roberto Cota.
The referendum on hunting in Piedmont will take place on 3 June among the already countless controversies; just today the relative decree signed yesterday by President Roberto Cota was published in the official bulletin of the Region.
The date was set by the regional government after that on 10 February the TAR gave the Region a deadline of 15 days for scheduling the referendum which will have as the object of the consultation the introduction of a ban on hunting on Sundays, a ban on hunting on land covered by snow, a limit to hunting for four species, and a limitation on the withdrawals granted to wildlife-hunting companies.
In particular, the referendum questions are fundamentally centered around four points: the ban on hunting for 25 wild species, or 25 species are requested to be deleted from the list of huntable species; by exclusion four species would remain huntable, namely hare, pheasant, wild boar and Virginia colander even if the latter has in the meantime been included in the list of protected species by the European Community therefore the huntable species are reduced to three. In any case, it is possible to intervene with control measures if the excessive presence of wildlife should cause damage to agriculture.
The Ban on hunting on Sundays: the question asks that Sunday is no longer a day in which hunting can be practiced.
It is forbidden to hunt on snow covered ground: the ban is in fact already foreseen by the current legislation but the question also aims at eliminating the exceptions envisaged such as for example for hunting ungulates, foxes and the typical fauna of the alpine areas.
Limitation to the privileges granted to wildlife-hunting companies: the question aims to reduce the privilege of former private hunting reserves where it is possible to kill animals in greater numbers than in the free territory, therefore without limitation to the game bag for many species.
Both Cota and the councilor for agriculture Claudio Sacchetti have not expressed comments on the measure even if in the past weeks they have declared against the vote on hunting especially for the costs that the whole organization of the referendum will have; in fact, the opinion that it could be possible to avoid spending many millions of euros to give rise to a vote on hunting by modifying the relevant law within the Regional Council.
On the other hand, the committees promoting the referendum are of a completely different opinion, which indeed celebrate the obtaining of the referendum after 25 years of waiting. between so many battles. The leader of the IDV group in the Region, Andra Buquicchio, commented with perplexity, “The referendum is fine, but I am perplexed about the choice of the date. It seems to me the usual expedient to remove citizens from the polls by limiting democratic participation. Sunday 3 June is in the middle of the bridge for the feast of the Republic and many could be on vacation ”.