National Free Association Hunting he replies to the accusations of the animal rights activists, "we are hunters not poachers".
"Calendar of hunters / poachers", this is the title that opens the recent article published on the website of the Cabs (Committee against bird slaughter, literally Committee against the "massacre" of birds), where data on poaching on wildlife in the period from 1 February 2014 until 31 January 2015. We read in the article that in the hunting season just passed poaching raged in Italy, that the illegal killings (prohibited by law 157/92, as well as by regional laws) concerned various protected species and, with regard to Calabria, that the controls were scarce or even absent ... The overall picture of the hunting world described in the Cabs report is strongly negative and shows the hunter as a poacher and predator who has no respect for the law or the environment.
At this point, it is necessary to clarify some fundamental aspects and values of the hunting reality of our country and, in particular, of the Calabria region. First of all, we remember the recent reform of the Calabrian regional law on hunting which provides for the anti-poaching toll-free number, created with the collaboration of all the associations in the sector. A tool that has proved extremely useful in the repression of the phenomenon and that demonstrates what the sensitivity and orientation of the Calabrian hunter really is.
But not only…
It should be known to those who profess to be hunting experts that in the ATC hunters work together with environmentalists, farmers' associations, representatives of municipalities and the province for the protection of nature and wildlife and in contrasting illegalities. The path we are following, as Anlc, is that of cooperation, not only between the various hunting associations, but also with environmentalists, farmers and civil society all in a precise operational commitment and active participation for the promotion of the protection of nature and for a positive relationship between man and the environment.
The crucial objectives we pursue are the protection of species at risk of extinction, a targeted management of the territory, a greater specialization of hunters for the correct management of hunting, soil conservation, the collection and sharing of data and knowledge at the service of all. A reality, therefore, very far from the crude and brutal one that transpires from the Cabs article. Those who today work together with the Anlc hunters and know their characters know that they follow a sustainable perspective, using the resources of the territory in such a way as not to compromise the needs of future generations.
We, together with the whole hunting world, the institutions and the social and economic components of the country, can and must continue on the path we have taken, working in the defense of biodiversity and ecosystems, to save nature, not the other way around! We believe it is harmful, as well as misleading and illegitimate, the transmission of the message according to which the hunting activity is as a whole an illegal activity, conducted by unscrupulous hunters / poachers, as described in the article of the Cabs.
Our horizons are much wider: we think about the future of the new generations and we foresee a co-responsibility of subjects who, despite having found themselves in different positions in the past, today want to unite and work together.
National Free Hunting Association
(March 11, 2015)