Tomorrow, Tuesday 2 February 2016, will have important repercussions for what concerns the management of otters: as explained by the Anti Vivisection League (LAV) in an open letter toANCI (National Association of Italian Municipalities), the municipal ordinances that provide for the killing of the rodent must necessarily be withdrawn because they are no longer legitimate. In practice, this is the effect of the Environmental Connected to the Stability Law, which was approved at the end of last year. Article 7 of this text states that the management of nutria complies with the provisions of national law as regards the protection of wildlife.
LAV spoke expressly of theArticle 19 of Law 157 of 1992 (“Wildlife Control”). The letter underlines how from tomorrow the Provinces will have to provide for the possible drafting of new control plans: in addition, these same plans will have to be drawn up with the provision of bloodless methods as the only possible ones. The registered letter sent by the Anti-Vivisection League to the association of municipalities (specifically to the president Piero Fassino) aims to inform all municipalities and not to forget a deadline considered fundamental.
Massimo Vitturri, national responsible for LAV for what concerns wild animals, has called for the modification of the management methods of otters from February 2 as required by law: consequently, the mayors are forced to cancel their "nutrie-killing" ordinances and take a step back as they no longer have the expertise on the subject. Article 19 of the Hunting Law establishes that the regions have the possibility to prohibit or reduce the hunting of certain species of wildlife for pre-established periods.
The control, then, must be carried out through the use of ecological methods and on the advice of the National Institute for Wildlife: in the event that these methods are found to be ineffective, then the regions will be able to authorize killing plans through hunting guards employed by the provincial administrations. One of the main changes introduced by the Environmental Link to the text is the new paragraph of article 2 ("Object of protection").
The addition assumes that they are moles, rats, mice, otters and voles are excluded from the legislation, without however completely excluding control or eradication interventions. The nutria problem has lately been mainly affecting Lombardy, so much so that the regional section of the Coldiretti estimated the presence of one of these rodents for every ten inhabitants: the negative record belongs to Lodi and Mantua (one nutria for every two citizens), but the situation is no better in Cremona (one nutria for every three citizens).