Legambiente Piedmont-Valle d'Aosta has released a document in recent days in which it asks for changes and further delay in the approval of bill no. 83 "Provisions connected to the 2020 regional stability law" of Piedmont region. Most of these requests concern changes to the hunting legislation in this region. On pages 4 and in part 5 Legambiente addresses the issue of the COVID-19 pandemic, launching into erroneous, misleading and tendentious statements that demonstrate the will to impose limitations on hunting activities, taking as an excuse a health drama that has occurred in Italy.
A true act of looting that cannot be given any other definition than that of "mean". With regard to the statements set out in the "Considered that" on page 4, the following is noted for the following points: Regarding hunting as a means of contact between people mentioned by Legambiente, it is quite clear that the activity takes place outdoors , therefore, adopting the same measures that the Government issues and will enact for other human activities, you can exercise it safely. It is not true that hunting activities have only a playful-recreational character, but on the contrary many activities are considered socially useful for the control of the species. In any case, one wonders why Legambiente has only considered hunting among the recreational-recreational activities to be limited, while he neglected other forms of human interaction with wild animals, including searching, ringing, caring for injured animals in recovery centers, visits to wildlife parks with captive fauna, or the keeping of pets, also potentially subject to contact with the virus.
If it is true that COVID-19 represents the most serious form of pandemic in recent yearsPrecisely for this reason it is essential to monitor wild species guaranteed by the active surveillance (collection of organs and blood) of the hunted animals, carried out by hunters. The main triggers of zoonoses are considered changes in land use, the increase in intensive farming and the use of pastures, especially in regions that are crucial for biodiversity, i.e. the factors that intensify direct relationships between humans - domestic animals - wildlife and the possibility of transmission of pathogens between them. Several international studies suggest emerging wildlife-originated zoonoses are more likely to occur in regions with a higher human population density and greater wildlife diversity, such as in Southeast Asia and the equatorial regions.
Confirmation of this is that all the diseases listed have emerged in those areas of the world. With regard to the aforementioned study, which Legambiente has evidently not read in its entirety, it should be noted that the origin of the virus has not been ascertained. At the moment there is still discussion about the origin of the spread of COVID-19 and therefore certain conclusions appear possible, but completely hasty and instrumental. The most accredited hypothesis hypothesizes that the initial phase of the emergence of the virus from wildlife was most likely due to the subsistence hunt of local populations aimed at obtaining animal proteins, which caused the virus to pass to man by passing through a species in able to modify the virus. In any case, most of the zoonotic diseases widespread worldwide (COVID-19, SARS, Nipha virus, Ebola, AIDS, etc ..) derive from a more or less direct interaction within rapidly changing environments between wild animals, pets and humans.
Based on the above, Legambiente's request: "Legambiente Piemonte and VdA therefore asks that the provisions of Chapter III of DDL 83/2020 be removed and postponed to an in-depth examination to be conducted only at the end of the current emergency "are completely instrumental and oriented by the usual anti-hunt ideological attitude. Here are some considerations that explain the erroneousness of the Legambiente-Valle d'Aosta proposal: Even in the presence of the serious health problems in place, which it is hoped will be increasingly mitigated by moving to a phase of possible coexistence with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, on the basis of the above considerations Federcaccia Piemonte and the National Studies and Research Office believe: it is necessary that the future of the conservation of the fauna heritage and the regulation of hunting activities in Piedmont, as well as in Italy, continue according to the management strategies already hired at a regional, national and international level; management of the species in question must be activated again including in it the resumption of wildlife and health monitoring; the suspension of the law amendment requested by Legambiente Piemonte and VdA is incongruent, considering that the regional law itself projects its effects for an indefinite time over the years, with respect to a serious health problem that we sincerely hope to be able to contain in the coming months and possibly resolve in the next few years;
the request of Legambiente Piemonte and VdA with respect to the matter dealt with is incongruent, as it is not affected by direct repercussions as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, if not in the contingent due to any restrictions on the mobility of people;
it is necessary to safeguard the ecosystem services that the sustainable use of very limited quotas of the populations of the species subject to the amendment of the law can ensure on cultural and socio-economic level.
The subsequent requests of Legambiente-Valle d'Aosta on the reduction of huntable species have already been contradicted point by point by this Federation and by the technical documents of the National Studies and Research Office, we limit ourselves to pointing out again that huntable species in Italy are allowed by Directive 147/2009 / EC, by Law 157/92, and considered huntable by ISPRA in all hunting calendars of other regions. Legambiente continues to support thesis without scientific basis, and to discriminate Piedmontese citizens as hunters from their colleagues in the rest of Italy.