The Veneto regional councilor Andrea Zanoni he has accustomed us to his for years come out of a convinced ideological anti-hunt. Every occasion is good to confirm his animalist fanaticism that makes him criticize any choice of fauna management: from otters to wild boars, from pigeons to roe deer to foxes, for Zanoni it is never necessary to intervene with the killing of any fauna species, regardless of the favorable or unfavorable judgments of the scientific bodies in charge. This time, however, Zanoni has surpassed himself, and in the note published on "Rovigo LIVE" of 6 June 2020, concerning the hunt for pochards and lapwings, even goes so far as to define these species as "endangered", forgetting that the lapwing it is present in Europe with a total population of several million individuals and the pochard of about two million individuals. No European or Italian study body has ever defined these endangered species.
The letter sent not by Minister Costa, but by the Director General of the Environment Ministry Dr. Zaghi, represents a pure anti-hunt political act, since theISPRA (Scientific body of the same Ministry!) Has already sent its opinion to the Italian Regions, including Veneto, declaring that the two species can be hunting object. Surprisingly, Zanoni mentions ISPRA shortly after for the requests regarding the duck and the fighter, forgetting the positions of the Institute on the same species, but above all ignoring the numerous opinions favorable to the control of otters, foxes, wild boars etc. prepared by the same body, which accompanied the numerical containment resolutions issued by the Veneto Region, which Zanoni however harshly criticized. In short, ISPRA is fine when it writes to ban species, but he is wrong when he says they can be knocked down!
However, it would be enough to document a minimum to understand that there is no risk of infringement procedure, that the hunting of pochard, lapwing, tufted duck and fighter are in total harmony with the Birds Directive, and that the species present favorable data: in fact the lapwing it is judged to be increasing in Europe and Italy, e the pochard has increased its attendance in recent years, in particular in Veneto, thanks to the environmental restoration actions carried out by hunters in the Venice Lagoon.
In a few years this area has gone from about 2000 wintering subjects to 12.000, almost all concentrated in a private hunting area, which has carried out important interventions on the habitats, making them favorable to the pochard stop. Hunting therefore proves to be an exceptional conservation tool and keeping the species huntable pushes hunters to restore and conserve natural habitats. A strategy that Zanoni does not want to understand, but which is the future of conservation - The National Councilor Federcaccia Oscar Stella (Faunistic and Agro-Environmental Studies and Research Office Federcaccia).