Hunting: Sicily, the woodcock hunt on the island closes early on January 10th, compared to the date of January 31st set by the Hunting Calendar, to comply with the requests of the European Union.
As is known with the decree issued by the Sicilian Regional Councilor for Agriculture, Antonino Caleca, last December 9th, on the island the closing date of the woodcock hunting, compared to 31, as previously envisaged by the Hunting Calendar. In a note the following day, Federcaccia Sicilia immediately condemned the decision taken by the Region, underlining that it was an unjustified worsening of the request from the Ministry of the Environment. This, the note recalls, sent a request to some Regions, including Sicily, which had established in their respective Venatori Calendars the closure of the hunting to January 31 for Tordo Bottaccio, Cesena and Beccaccia, to bring forward, for these wild animals, the closure of the hunt "at least" to January 20 on the basis of a "presumed" European procedure.
In reality, the EU Environment Commission has simply asked Italy to clarify some aspects of the Hunting Calendars, (PILOT 6599/14 / ENVI), and the Ministry of the Environment instead asks, even before the EU Commission has expressed an assessment, to close the hunt early. In the meantime, Federcaccia Sicilia underlines, “what is our Region doing?”. "One month and twenty days before the date proposed by the Ministry, he autonomously decides to close the hunt not on the 20th, a date that, among other things, FIdC had always proposed as correctly justifiable, but even on January 10th".
"Who knows - he concludes - if now with the same diligence the closing dates of the Thrush will be moved to January 20 and the aquatic dates to January 31, on which the Ministry agrees ...".
13 December 2014
Hunting Federation