The species under consideration
The ruling of the Regional Administrative Court of the Province was published on 27 December Sardinia which had already reduced, through an ordinance in September, the hunting times for mallards and moorhens.
The reasons given
The appeal was presented with two very distinct motivations:
- Violation of the precautionary principle regarding the turtle dove
- Excess of power, with lack of motivation and violation of the precautionary principle in relation to aquatic avifauna
The words of the TAR judges
These are the reasons: "Ultimately, the appeal must be declared partly inadmissible (in the part in which, with the first ground, the provisions of the hunting calendar are challenged which identify the pre-opening hunting day for the turtle dove on 5 September 2024) and partly upheld (in the part in which, with the second ground, the provisions of the hunting calendar are challenged which set the closing date for hunting for aquatic birds and, in particular, for the moorhen and the mallard duck on 30 January 2025), with the consequent annulment in part of the hunting calendar and the obligation for the Region to re-determine on the point, within 15 days of the administrative communication of this sentence, or of the notification of the same, if it occurred previously, taking into account the observations made above".