Launching invectives against hunting it is very easy and it is politically useful to support one's ideology and seek helpful votes by threatening referendums for the abolition of law 157/92 (?) and other pleasant initiatives of the kind aimed more at gaining consensus mostly from the undecided than at protecting wild animals. All the psycho-socio media are full of rotogravure experts totally ignorant (in the technical sense of the term that is completely unaware of what they are talking about) who loudly denounce the havoc done by hunters on the wildlife to the detriment of wolves and all those cute little animals of the forest whose uncontrolled proliferation causes incalculable damage to our agriculture.
But this matters less when, moreover, it is possible to understand. Much less simple and in any case politically dangerous if not incorrect it is take the hunter's defense, which in itself is hampered by an incredible bureaucracy and very high costs. In addition, anti-hunting associations are brought in with initiatives that are surreal to say the least, which betray, without even hiding it so much, the absolute unfamiliarity with the subject, including zoology. Finally, as if that were not enough, there are the supporters, emulators and sympathizers of the latter, when not simple mavericks of theimaginary antivenator, who equip themselves for demagogic initiatives that lead to real crimes against indiscriminate victims, not necessarily hunters.
And this is what happened recently in Scandicci, a small town on the outskirts of Florence, still populated today by a fair number of fulcrum hunters and rich in a fervent associational activity to protect them. In fact, the Federcaccia Section of Scandicci Lastra is located here, which deals with the management, promotion and defense of hunting activities on the national territory and assists national and regional institutions in the development and protection of hunting in all forms permitted by law. The control of the territory and the monitoring of the presence of fauna are of primary interest of the association in question, of migratory habits, of the protection of the habitat of native and non-native species in any case included in the territory and of participation in the formation of sampling and control plans authorized by the Region in order to maintain the correct fauna balance in the areas of competence.
It is also the primary interest and purpose of the association protection of hunters and their activity, to be exercised in compliance with current legislation, as well as ensuring that all members comply with the free discipline of authorized hunting in various forms in the territory of Scandicci Lastra by the institutions. Precisely by virtue of this activity in the days between on July 26th and 28th during a reconnaissance and patrol tour in the area of San Martino alla Palma at the intersection of via di Coltinuova and via San Martino alla Palma, a threatening sign was found next to the small altar at the intersection, affixed by unknown persons bearing the written: "Summer shooters take care of your vehicles".
The threatening intent of the gesture is clear and evident, albeit cowardly because it is anonymous and in contempt of the most normal canons of legitimate manifestation of the thought aimed at cowardly hitting the hunter and / or in any case the one who may appear to be so, in certain circumstances to the inexperienced eye, of every forest lover in any capacity a potential victim. This inevitably pushed Federcaccia Scandicci Lastra in the person of its President to forward a complaint to the competent Public Prosecutor of Florence not so much and not only for the purpose of searching and identifying the culprit, it is feared that the outcome is difficult, but also for the broader political interest of trade associations at the provincial, regional and, why not, national level, in order to sensitize public opinion that is too often exploited on a subject that is not spoken about and you don't want to talk, in order not to reveal how much false and tendentious there is in the abolitionist proclamations of hunting, which make it a slogan for political purposes only.
Serious and correct information on the real value and function of hunting in our country is the only way to rediscover the true function of the hunter. which is the only instrument of protection and respect for our great wildlife heritage. (Giovanni Mariani - President of Federcaccia, Scandicci-Lastra municipal section)