Federcaccia: Emilia Romagna celebrates S. Uberto patron saint of hunters at the manor of Gropparello (PC); conference on the theme "Hunting: from privilege of lords to tradition of peoples".
This year it was the manor of Gropparello, in the province of Piacenza, that hosted the Emilia-Romagna celebration of the patron saint of hunters. The president of the organizing Section, Franco Livera, who introduced the work of the conference "Hunting: from privilege of lords to tradition of peoples" did the honors: "This choice - explained Livera - was dictated by necessity, more timely than ever, to tell a story, that of hunting, so that it reaches the whole of society, which has now lost contact with the cycle of life and death that governs nature, and makes its value appreciated before hunting and hunters become only material for history books ".
A story that has been explained in great detail by Zeffiro Ciuffoletti, Professor of Contemporary History and Social History of Communication at the University of Florence, who started from hunting as a privilege of the elite, to move on to hunting only in properties with the English revolution. and become the right of all with the French Revolution. This right gave rise to unprecedented hunting pressure, often poaching, with serious damage to the fauna. Napoleon, to limit the levy, replenish the state coffers and regulate the possession of weapons for security reasons, introduced the hunting concession that is still current.
Moving on to today, Ciuffoletti has found a return to the past: hunting is increasingly a privilege for the elite no longer based on the fiefdom, but on economic possibilities. Not only that: to relegate hunting to "politically incorrect" activities is the change in democracy, which from a mass expression has turned into an expression of "organized minorities" such as environmentalists: "Today, animal protection - he said - coincides with a lack of culture of what is defended. If in a functioning state the balance is achieved by balancing the interests of all, some of these minorities have killed the state and therefore the interest of all ”.
At the end of his speech, the professor gave some advice that is valid not only for the hunting world, but also for agriculture: “You cannot change the course of history, but you have to become part of it by becoming an organized minority. To succeed, it is necessary first of all to eliminate the representative fragmentation and combine communication strategies, possibly involving women and young people as much as possible ”.
Giuseppe Manfredi, Professor of Administrative Law at the Catholic University of Piacenza, took inspiration from the previous intervention to clarify that “popular hunting is already configured in Roman law, in which fauna is defined as res nullius. The French Revolution does nothing but restore the right of the Romans. The first change, at least in Italy, comes with the hunting law 968/77, in which wild animals become part of the unavailable heritage of the State, which can be used in a general, special way, is the case of hunting that is subjected to authorization, and exceptional. Another Italian peculiarity is art. 842 cc which allows hunters to enter private funds. It is not present in other states and is the subject of European debate, given that the European Court of Human Rights has placed the prohibition of such entry as one of the prerogatives of private property, a fundamental human right. Can this measure be applied in Italy? Theoretically yes, - said prof. Manfredi - but I think it is a remote hypothesis, because hunting is increasingly assuming the social role of restoring ecological balance, a role that farmers recognize and which they use to regulate the fauna that causes them great damage. For all this - he concluded - I do not think that hunting in Italy can lose its popular character ”.
Alberto Dallari Bondanini, former president of Confagricoltura of Modena, made clear on the farmers' positions: "The farmers of our lands, who drew their protein intake from game, were always accustomed to the presence of fauna, but today it is necessary that nature is managed by those who feed and care for the wild: hunters and farmers ”.
Of particular interest is the constructive intertwining between hunting and agriculture designed by Dallari Bondanini: "There are two types of agricultural land: marginal and suitable: for the former hunting can be a significant integration of income, for the latter an effective defense tool . It is no coincidence that once farmers pushed for the repeal of 842 and that today this is no longer the case, on the contrary, what worries them is the progressive aging and decrease of the hunting population ”.
The meeting was closed by Stefano Merighi, regional president of Emilia-Romagna, who stigmatized the growing hypocrisy with which the hunting issue is tackled, and indicated in politics the knot to be solved: "We want politicians - he declared - that let them pull by the jacket neither by environmentalists nor, obviously, by hunters, but that they give balanced and correct rules, which allow a sustainable and at the same time satisfying hunting course ”.
The celebrations continued with a medieval sword exhibition by the Gesindel School of Arms in the external courtyard of the castle, the hunter's mass and the traditional St. Hubert dinner during which, embellished by the interventions of the mayor of Gropparello, Claudio Ghittoni, and the provincial councilor for hunting, Manuel Ghilardelli, was awarded the 2013 regional “Gentleman Hunter” award to Luigi Cavanna, head of oncology and hematology at the Guglielmo da Saliceto hospital in Piacenza.
12 December 2013
Hunting Federation