La The Tuscan Regional Authority, following the strong increase in damage from roe deer to fine viticulture, with its own resolution had extended the period of selection hunting. A measure requested by the associations of consortia for the protection of Tuscan wines, by some ATCs particularly affected by the damage caused by roe deer and of which the commissioner Remaschi had taken charge by extending the period of a month in the full period of browsing of the vines. According to the president of the Territorial Area of Caccia 3 Siena Nord, it is disconcerting that the request for suspension came from the hunting world, albeit from the selection hunting (URCA).
A similar intervention could have been expected from the environmentalist world, the most extremist one that continues to call Bambi the roe deer, but not from a part, albeit a minority, of the hunting world. Here are the words of the statement: “This association has a slight idea of damage from roe deer that our Tuscan winemakers have to endure and in particular in Siena, a province with a strong wine-growing vocation? In 2017, the damage to our roe deer viticulture represented 40% of the total, in 350.000 euros, and we are only talking about reimbursements on the grapes and not the lack of commercial revenue. If the reasons that incredibly led URCA and its associates to ask for suspension are conservative on the species, I reassure them: from a (prudential) estimate of our wildlife technicians in the provincial territory we have ascertained the presence of no less than 40 thousand roe deer: there are animals to be slaughtered in abundance.
The species is absolutely healthy, it does not risk extinction in the least and we would like to remind you that in the province of Siena, for over twenty years, the selection hunt was open to EVERYTHING on the first of August: it does not seem to us that the roe deer was affected. The plan approved by the Region for the current season provides for the abatement of approx 8500 roes and on average, unfortunately, in hunting for selection, our province can barely complete 50% of the plan. Instead of asking for URCA suspensions, you can stimulate your members more to increase the slaughter, to engage more in the selection of roe deer. But the most serious aspect is that this affair reopens a dispute between the hunting world and farmers that has never subsided and that now finds new material of controversy. Who now pays the damage from roe deer to the vines, now close to harvest, after the stop requested by the URCA?
Due to the selfishness and hunting myopia of a few, for completely incomprehensible reasons, once again at the beginning of the 2018 harvest we will have damage to our vineyards. Is URCA aware of the damage it may cause? In these days I have had meetings with important companies in the DOCG Chianti Classico, Vernaccia and Brunello and I have had reports of the beginning of damage to grapes from wild boar but also from roe deer and fallow deer; this suspension of abatement even if limited to females and young, it will worsen the situation. I hope that the hunting world, the one made up of responsible associations and seeking dialogue with the agricultural world, will be able to react and isolate these extremist positions and that a serious confrontation will continue to limit the damage to our viticulture. My position as President of ATC 3 is that of the economic protection of the organization with regard to damages, to defend our heavily damaged winegrowers and appreciate the responsibility and dialogue of the majority of the hunting association world. On 11 September the TAR will decide on the merits, meanwhile, the roe deer thank URCA for the abundance of food of great value that is not lacking in this period ”.