Hunting and Migration: Lazio, Federcaccia's criticism of the Region, “unjustified early closure of the turdidae hunt”.
With the Decree of the President Zingaretti, the Lazio Region has decided "To proceed with the modification of article 7" periods of hunting and huntable species ”of the“ REGIONAL VENATORY CALENDAR AND REGULATION FOR THE 2014-2015 VENATORY SEASON IN LAZIO ”, adopted by Decree of the President of the Lazio Region n. T00216 of 15 July 2014, providing for the closure of the hunt for Cesena species (Turdus pilaris), song thrush (Turdus philomelos) e redwing (Turdus iliacus) as of January 19, 2015 ", that is, to anticipate and unify the closing dates for the specified species with respect to what was initially foreseen in the regional hunting calendar. The regional president Federcaccia Aldo Pompetti, who on the hypothesis had already had the opportunity to confront the regional bodies strongly highlighting the opposition of the Federation, stressed that this is an "unmotivated and unnecessarily penalizing decision for hunters". “Once again - continued Pompetti - I am sorry to see how our regional administration on the subject of hunting is always ready to take restrictive initiatives that fall on enthusiasts without there being a real need. This decision is also no exception, which is nothing else, as stated by the provision itself, other than the response to the request, which we have repeatedly recalled and underlined, unfounded and not justified by national legislation and the interpretative guide of the European Directive, of the Ministry of the Environment to the Regions to reduce hunting times for thrush, cesena and woodcock as a result of a simple request for information from the European Community.
Other Regions opposed this 'invitation' strong in the legitimacy and correctness of the technical documents on which they based their hunting calendars, finding all the support from our Federation. Here it seems that we have decided to follow another path, which we cannot find in any way in agreement, despite the fact that we had offered the Region the technical-scientific tools to validate its positions. In particular, for the song Thrush species we had made available and is in the possession of the Lazio Region the research carried out by our Bird Migration Office in the province of Latina. A study which, although awaiting publication in an international journal, was immediately usable to support the closure of the hunt for this species on January 31st.
In conclusion, the Lazio Region has lost an excellent opportunity to exercise its competences correctly, without disregarding national or international hunting legislation or doing any 'favor' to hunters. A choice that we will certainly take into account ”.
Italian Federation of Hunting Lazio
(January 10, 2015)