Federcaccia and CCT in recent days they have given due communication to their associates of the publication of the sentence of the Regional Administrative Court of Tuscany which declared the illegitimacy of the hunting calendar of Tuscany 2018/2019 limitedly (a) to the anticipation of the closing date of the hunt for the species concerned by the pre-opening of the same duration as the two days of actual hunting (instead of a duration equal to the entire period between the 1st and the third Sunday of September) and (b) at the end of the woodcock hunting established on January 31 (instead of January 10).
Behind the objections of inadmissibility and the defenses formulated in court by Federcaccia and the CCT the environmentalist / protectionist associations instead they saw fit to "retreat" and renounce the many additional reasons for appeal that concerned:
- the obligation to note on the hunting card the animals collected only after having ascertained the killing;
- exemption from the control of game bags and killing within agro-tourism hunting farms;
- the exemption of days dedicated to hunting for the selection of ungulates from the cumulative calculation of hunting days;
- the sampling periods of all migratory bird species (with the sole exception, of course, of woodcock).
The complaint concerning the early opening of the hunting season to the species was also rejected as unfounded. starling, turtle dove, wood pigeon, blackbird, magpie, jay, hooded crow, teal, mallard and garganey without acquiring the opinion of Ispra.
As can be seen, the appeal of the environmentalist / protectionist associations was more than effectively opposed by Federcaccia and CCT. This specified for due and complete information to our associates, after having examined the reasons for the ruling of the TAR of Tuscany, Federcaccia and CCT have taken the decision to mandate their lawyers to appeal to the Council of State as regards the two points of the 2018/2019 Tuscan hunting calendar deemed illegitimate by the Administrative Judges. As stated in the sentence, once the pre-opening of hunting for some species has been decided, regardless of the number of days actually authorized, the entire time span from the 1st to the third Sunday of September should always and in any case be subtracted from the ordinary hunting period. Thus, with only two days of pre-opening, the hunters were deprived of three weeks of hunting activity.
And this without the Council of State, in the suspension, and then the TAR of Tuscany, with the sentence, have provided any plausible reasoning, flattening, instead, on an opinion of Ispra of a few lines that actually says nothing about it. As for the early closure of 10st January of the woodcock hunt, this date was established by the Administrative Judges, in contrast with the law and with all the most recent scientific findings that justify January 31st, also following the opinion of Ispra, which has nothing scientific and which represents only the personal opinion of an employee of the Institute with a firm hold on scientific data (Key concepts) even dating back to 2001 which, although devoid of any legal value, would be able to overcome art. 18 of Law 157/1992 which, revised in 2010, confirmed the suitability of the closing date as of January 31st for the woodcock. It is also surprising that the Administrative Judges, progressively, tend essentially to wanting to pass Ispra's opinion on the regional hunting calendars that are not only mandatory but also binding, as it was for the hunting calendar of Tuscany 2018/2019, when the closure of the woodcock hunt on January 31 was justified by specific monitoring carried out in March 2016-2017-2018 by our members specially trained and supported by the more recent scientific studies largely provided by the Federcaccia Birdlife Migration Office.
All useless, because the Administrative Judges consider the opinion of Ispra to be unsurpassed, despite its evident generality (every year it is practically identical for all Regions). This is not only in contrast with the law but represents a disallowed "invasion of the field" of the Administrative Judges in the merit assessments that are up to the Regions in the matter of hunting. With the consequence that for some years now the regional hunting calendars have been unevenly entrusted to the appeals of environmentalist / protectionist associations and to the precautionary decisions of the Administrative Courts and the Council of State, moreover after the hunters have already paid the concession fees commensurate with the entire hunting season established species by species by art. 18 L. 157/1992. The result is there for all to see: incomprehensible differences in hunting calendars even in neighboring Regions as happened this year where, thanks to the Administrative Judges, the woodcock hunt in Liguria ended on 31th December, in Tuscany on January 10, in Umbria and in the Marches on January 31 ... in spite of the much-invoked precautionary principle and with all due respect to the need for homogeneous conservation of the species and equal treatment of the rights of hunters.
These are the reasons why Federcaccia and CCT have decided to appeal against the ruling of the Tuscan TAR, assuming, in the event of confirmation by the Council of State, to bring the question also to European level, where we are sure that we will at least be heard. and where we will be able to illustrate the numerous examples of excess judicial power exercised by the Italian Administrative Judges against hunters every time we discuss migratory birds whose protection is of international interest and does not stop at the borders of individual states. It is disconcerting, in fact, to read the sentence of the TAR Toscana and not find even a line of motivation in relation to the extensive and documented arguments made in this sense by Federcaccia and CCT. For all of the above, therefore, the commitment continues with renewed vigor to see our well-founded scientific and technical-legal positions recognized.