Hunt: the Hon. hunter Sergio Berlato responds to animal rights MEP Andrea Zanoni who never misses an opportunity to attack the hunting activity in all its aspects.
Hon. Andrea Zanoni, who became European parliamentarian thanks to the resignation from the European Parliament of the Hon. de Magistris because he was elected mayor of Naples, despite the serious economic and employment crisis that our country is going through, finds nothing better to do than to urge the institutions to protect some birds or insects, or stand out on every occasion in an attempt to speculate on every news story in which a hunting weapon is improperly used. Hon. Andrea Zanoni never misses an opportunity to try to portray hunters as potential criminals, dangerous for themselves and for the community only for the fact that they legally possess weapons. Yet it is easily demonstrable that hunting is one of the safest activities taking place in our country, both in relative and absolute terms. Here are some objective data recently published in some media: Compared to an average of about twenty fatal accidents per season, always too many, but less than physiological, deaths from traumatic causes in Italy are around twenty-five thousand a year. Latest official Istat data (2009): 24.642, one in 2.500 inhabitants, equal to 0,04 of the Italian population. That is, for every Italian who dies due to an accident, the incidence of the “hunting” variable is 0,0012. That is, a fatal accident that can be classified as a "hunting" for every twelve hundred accidents. Even considering that the ratio between the number of hunters and the totality of the population does not reach one hundredth: 1 // 85. In other words, the numbers do not deceive, in our country hunting is at least ten times less dangerous than the average of other human activities.
On closer inspection, indeed, if you enter the data and specifically, the attention of the Hon. Zanoni if, figures in hand, it turns out that the greatest number of fatal accidents is recorded within the home, with an average of 8.000 deaths per year (15 per day), source INAIL (other sources double the figure). While the deaths due to road accidents in 2011 (Eurispes Institute) unfortunately were 3.860, unfortunately followed by 1.180 deaths due to work causes (Independent Observatory of Bologna Deaths at Work). Among the workers, one of the categories that pays a great toll is that of professional fishermen, who have an incidence of deaths equal to 129 per 100.000. That is: being a fisherman is more than forty times more dangerous than hunting.
But leisure activities considered to be among the most harmless are not saved either. In the mountains, among hikers and skiers, 2011 people died in 500 (plus 494 injured in imminent danger of life; source National Alpine and Speleological Rescue Corps). And in 2010, 50 mushroom hunters died in 43 days; and by bicycle, 300 people die a year in Italy (from 2005 to 2010 = 1514 deaths). Even the beaches, the sea, the swimming pools demand a high toll. An average of 390 per year are vacationers who drown. With a very high percentage of children: 5.000 children in Europe, 175.000 children in the world (especially in the swimming pool).
Hunting, on the other hand, which has been imposing ever more stringent safety rules for some time, shows a small incidence among its passionate enthusiasts, now around seven hundred thousand units. Less than 0,0030%, which corresponds to an irreparable misfortune every 30-35.000 users, while for all other activities the budget is as we have seen at least ten times heavier.
It follows that the Hon. Andrea Zanoni, taking as a pretext the recent case of the boy who went to school with a shotgun stolen from his father's custody, is once again calling for the issuance of more restrictive regulations for those who legally hold hunting weapons, ignoring that most of the deaths from weapons involve defensive weapons and the most banal kitchen knives used improperly. The Hon. Zanoni that in Italy there are already very strict rules for the possession and possession of hunting weapons.
We also remind the Hon. Zanoni that in Italy, anyone who owns a hunting weapon is a person who possesses specific authorizations after having undergone careful medical examinations that certify their psychophysical suitability. Many of us naturally wonder how many of the huntsmen would be able to achieve the same qualifications if they were subjected to the same tests that hunters are subjected to.
hon. Sergio Berlato
Hunter Deputy in the European Parliament
(June 12, 2013)