It started on Sunday selective deer harvesting plan in province of Belluno. For one month, until 14 September, game reserves are authorized to cull females up to one year of age and pups of the year for rebalance the population of the ungulate, which appears oversized. There are about thirty reserves that have begun to come out on the territory (last year there were twenty), but criticism continues to rain on the Province. The press release of the Italian association was yesterday Defense of animals and the environment - Italiambiente, a reality based in Pregnana Milanese which announces: "We are working on a warning to the Province of Belluno to combat the killing of deer and in particular of fawns and females", writes the association. «It will be sent tomorrow.
We are evaluating the hypothesis of an appeal to the TAR, also in this case in order to stop the guns and avoid the planned massacre of deer and other animals ». The association speculates that the provincial plan "will favor both the illegal venison market and the highly profitable market for the illegal sale of deer antlers, which are valued at around 37 euros per kg for each couple". It is not the first attack of its kind that the Province receives. "We are ready to resist at any location," says the councilor with responsibility for hunting and fishing, Franco De Bon. "Our plan has been proposed to the competent scientific body, Ispra, and authorized."
Ispra considered the numbers of ungulates present in the Belluno area (40 head, including 10.400 deer, 13.600 roe deer, 2.400 mouflons, 7.250 chamois and an unknown number of wild boars, in very strong growth - the data refer to 2019), assessed the damage caused to agriculture and the impact on the other components of the biocenosis, and given the green light to Palazzo Piloni to increase the culling of females and young by 20% . "Deer can also create problems for forest renewal," recalls De Bon. "The wildlife is redundant, and considering we can't fence in the woods, there are no alternatives to selective withdrawals. The European Habitats Directive also provides for this solution when a population has a considerable impact on the environment ”. Selective withdrawals, continues De Bon, are used to «manage the deer population, in order to protect and conserve it in the best possible way, in balance with the environment in which it is inserted.
It is the same Ispra a recommend that we bring the deer population back into balance»Concludes De Bon. "I also remember that males have antlers, not horns, which are instead typical of bovids." De Bon thanks the hunters of the thirty reserves who have started the selective withdrawals since Sunday. «They are doing a service for the territory. The hunter monitors the population present in the territory, he is a manager of the fauna ». The selective withdrawals plan started a bit on the sly. "Many work in tourism here," recalls Alberto Colleselli, president of the Colle Santa Lucia hunting reserve.
«They must have taken a specimen, nothing more, also because the deer are now still at high altitude, and in the woods. But there is no rush to tear down the specimens that have been assigned to us ». The Alto Agordino area, together with that of Val Boite, is the one to which the highest numbers of withdrawals have been assigned: 500 animals each. "Ours is a quiet hunt, made to rebalance the population," he adds. In Alto Agordino and Valboite almost all the reserves have been activated. Withdrawals will last until September 14, then the deer hunting it will stop for the mating season. It will reopen on October 18 (Courier of the Alps).