“RAI has declared war on the hunting world. Unfortunately we no longer witness isolated cases, always and in any case against the world of hunting, but now the lynching and defamation of hunting is an editorial choice that cannot leave indifferent to the role that RAI should exercise.
The last case in chronological order is the one that happened during the program "Guess who comes to dinner", broadcast on Rai 3, where the derogations from movement outside their own Municipality granted to hunters in the Orange area were condemned . In a wholly pretext manner, it was highlighted how the aforementioned hunting activity would have been the cause of the spread of an epidemic of avian flu.
Totally unfounded accusations passed off as truth by state TV, based simply on the most total ignorance of both the ways in which the hunting activity is carried out, and the actual ways of spreading the avian flu. At the time of the exemption granted to hunters, in fact, no outbreaks of HPAI had been identified in Italy, but only in the Netherlands and Eastern Europe. On this point, it should be remembered that the exercise of hunting is subject to strict regulations regarding the containment of highly pathogenic avian influenza, provided for by the European Union, which recognizes hunters, through the use of live calls for the hunting the anatidae, a valuable sentinel role, as they constitute a first garrison for the control of wildlife.
The European Commission itself has been able to highlight on several occasions how hunters play a role of primary importance in the early detection of HPAI in wild birds. This role is recognized and supported by Community legislation, as it is essential for reporting cases of anomalous mortality or outbreaks in wildlife, with particular reference to aquatic fauna.
The self-styled journalists, in the production of the service, omitted, out of ignorance or bad faith, what the Commission remarked, namely that the competent authorities at national level, can authorize, within the framework of the HPAI surveillance programs, the use of decoy birds of the anseriform and caradiform orders even in high-risk areas, precisely to support the control and prevention activities carried out by hunters in the area. "
This is what the Hon. Maria Cristina Caretta, deputy of the Brothers of Italy