ATC requirements
After the historic green light also given to farmers and breeders who own land to slaughter wild boars, selection hunting has begun in the province of Taranto with the planning and organization of the collection. The news was given by Coldiretti Puglia, in relation to the requirements of the ATC of Taranto for the control activity of the wild boar species from fixed stakes with the planning and organization of the collection and communication on the XCaccia IT platform.
Elements of serious risk
“It is a first step towards the containment of a problem which also has effects of a health nature and creates elements of serious risk for farmers and motorists”, declares Alfonso Cavallo, president of Coldiretti Puglia, underlining that “full implementation must be given to the measures taken by the Puglia Region, starting from the identification and construction of the management districts and sampling sectors, after the historic resolution of the Puglia Region Council which approved the regulations for the management of "Selection Hunting" of wild boars, deer and bovids in Puglia, strongly supported by Coldiretti who contributed to writing the guidelines, which also allows farmers with a hunting card, authorized hunters, voluntary hunting and environmental guards to take part in operations to reduce the number of wild animals, security guards". With Puglia invaded by 250 wild animals there is not only the wild boar plague, but there is an alarm - adds Coldiretti Puglia - for the safety of people in the countryside and cities with herds that push into urban centres, among parked cars , prams with children and elderly people going shopping, with the areas of the Murgia of Bari and Taranto, of the Gargano and of the Dauno sub-Apennines having become the Eldorado of wild boars.
Road accidents
The herds of wild boars - underlines Coldiretti - move ever closer to homes and schools, up to parks, destroy crops, attack animals, besiege stables, cause road accidents with deaths and injuries and scavenge through waste with obvious risks for Health. The situation has become unsustainable in the city and in the countryside with incalculable economic damage to agricultural production but - underlines Coldiretti - the environmental balance of vast territorial ecosystems in areas of naturalistic value is also compromised with the loss of both animal and vegetable biodiversity. It is - highlights the regional Coldiretti - only the tip of the iceberg because many do not report discouraged by the bureaucratic delays and by the conditions imposed by the insurance companies such as, for example, in addition to the traces on the car and on the asphalt, also the discovery of the animal's carcass with which we collided.
Farmers' measures
In Puglia the damage caused by wildlife is enormous, with wild boars destroying crops and attacking humans and farmed animals - reports Coldiretti Puglia - as well as wolves and wild dogs, starlings eliminate the production of olives and destroy pitches, hares literally devour entire vegetable fields, cormorants eat fish in aquaculture plants, with damage amounting to over 16 million euros. Farmers are fencing farms at their own expense at considerable cost to defend themselves from wild boars that destroy structures and production. This is an unsustainable situation – insists the regional Coldiretti – which is causing the abandonment of internal areas, with social, economic and environmental problems. When asked who should solve the problem, over half of the citizens (53%) are of the opinion that it is up to the Regions, while for 25% it is the Government's task and 22% is up to the Municipalities. In this scenario, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has also launched an appeal to the states of the European Union asking for extraordinary measures to prevent wild boars from accessing food and reduce the number of animals to limit the risk of spreading the disease. African swine fever (PSA) which affects animals but not humans. The majority of citizens consider the excessive presence of wild animals a real national emergency which affects the safety of people as well as the economy and work, especially in the most disadvantaged areas, concludes Coldiretti in underlining the need for targeted and on a large scale to reduce the threat of wild boars at a national level (source: Coldiretti Puglia).