Rumors
At the end of October in Regional Council in Milan, the draft law number 25 "Regulatory revision law" will go to court. Also on this occasion, amendments will be proposed on hunting matters, the contents of which we only know in brief since no councilor has officially contacted Federcaccia and therefore we must be content with gossip and rumors as well as some serious person who still asks us for an opinion. These range from the possibility of using as live decoys specimens of avifauna injured during hunting, attaching a veterinary opinion and affixing a new ring provided by the Region. Another amendment then seeks to standardize the criteria for requests for impact assessments for new sheds within the SPAs and Sics, which are numerous throughout the regional territory. To date, in fact, there are many differences from province to province, evidently resulting from the lack of a general rule. A further amendment would then have the objective of allowing the hunter with a fixed hut to become the owner of a hut even in an ATC or District where he is not a member.
Withdrawal plans
To then allow the completion of the ungulate harvesting plans, we want to remove the ban on hunting with the ground covered in snow for this type of hunting also in the plains, therefore in the ATC, to avoid the spread of swine fever, to prevent damage to agriculture and road accidents. With another amendment we then return to the topic of the huts in the Alpine area in the most protected sector, the so-called zone A. In essence, the only person who with this amendment to the law could oppose the establishment of a new stakeout would be the Committee of District Management. Finally, the last amendment we have received has the objective of simplifying some bureaucratic mechanisms at the time of the ten-year renewal of the sheds, allowing the impact study document to be attached directly when submitting the renewal application. We do not allow ourselves to express an opinion on these amendments since we do not know the actual text but we would like the political world that flaunts its closeness to the Lombard hunters to engage in more far-reaching topics.
Lead ban
Let's give some examples. First of all, the lead issue which on paper seems to have been resolved but in reality leaves the practicing hunter with doubts about the real boundaries of the areas in which the use of lead is prohibited. We need a Lombard cartography and we need it quickly. In the month of September we then did the usual via crucis for the issue of the Ispra opinion on the hunting calendar presented by the Lombardy Region. Because no one is promoting a formal action on which to gather the consensus of fellow regional councilors, perhaps not only from Lombardy, which would raise the Minister of the Environment's awareness of how Ispra's opinions are expressed, opinions that are increasingly ideological and less and less technical. The question regarding the implementation of the Law on the rings still remains to be written, which, as it was written, has a fundamental part linked to the distribution of the rings. And lastly we also include the Hunting Wildlife Plan, a fundamental planning tool, which we haven't heard about for months. Only resolving these issues, with strong political action, would mean reassuring the hunting world for the years to come. Surely someone will want to build a shed in a more protected area in some district or recover a wounded thrush to use it as a decoy but certainly all hunters want clarity of the future and certainty of the rules. It seems to us that there is the hunt for electoral consensus among some regional councilors and not the vision of wanting to guarantee a better future for hunting in Lombardy. Many small amendments equal many consensuses, putting hunting associations aside, at least Federcaccia. From our point of view, a change of pace is needed which we will certainly have the opportunity to share with the regional councilors who deem it appropriate to listen to us (FEDERCACCIA BRESCIA – CACCIAPENSIERI).