Paul Sparvoli, president ofNational Free Hunting Association, wrote an open letter to the Minister of the Interior, Matteo Salvini. Here is the text: “Honorable Minister, according to what published by Il Giornale, the WWF He would have sent you a heartfelt letter with a very alarmist tone asking you to intervene with a series of severe measures aimed at limiting (if not to cancel completely) hunting activity. According to the authoritative environmental association, the reason for this request is an alarming number of incidents in the hunting sector which caused, in September, the death of 2 hunters and the wounding of 11.
Allow me, honorable minister, to make some clarifications by providing you, at the same time, with some data, taken from a substantial decades-long research carried out by the CNCN, which certainly no anti-hunt association and no information body - much less those of the public service - will ever provide you. First of all, the dead are not 2 but 4: 1 due to illness; 1 in the home during the cleaning of the weapon; 1 for a shot from his own shotgun that got stuck; finally the tragic accident, with outlines still to be clarified, which took place on 30 September in Liguria. At the same time, the wounded are not 11 but 14, five of which (all of a very slight entity) were non-hunters. Clarify these inaccuracies, which they demonstrate the approximation of the data provided by the WWF and, in essence, their unreliability, I would like to suggest you, dear minister, to ask the concerned anti-hunting association which, to alarm you and the public opinion, has defined these data "a war bulletin", as you would define, instead, these others data relating to accidents (about 200) which occurred in September in the mountains, in the countryside and in the Italian seas.
Mushroom seekers: 24 deaths (4 from an illness); 2 missing and 24 injured, 7 of which are very serious - Hikers: 21 dead (3 due to illness); 1 missing and 30 injured including 4 very serious - Drowned swimmers: 16 dead and 3 seriously injured - Divers: 2 dead and 2 injured. While I apologize for having bothered you, I reiterate, dear Minister, the maximum commitment of the Free Hunting, of all the hunting associations gathered in the Control room and the CNCN, in continuing with incessant energy in the training and awareness campaign of the approximately 700 thousand Italian hunters who, for their continuous work of protection of the territory and wildlife, as well as for their exemplary civil conduct, absolutely do not deserve to be at the center of this merciless campaign of defamation and media criminalization of an exclusively ideological nature. Please accept, Sir, the assurance of my highest consideration ”.