HUNTING: THE CENTER RIGHT WANTS THE GALERA FOR THOSE WHO WILL DO OBSTRUCTIONISM AGAINST HUNTING - Disturbing hunters and fishermen could cost jail.
The law does not yet provide for it, but there is the risk of ending up in prison for a year, even paying a fine of 2 thousand 400 euros, if the Parliament gives the green light to the proposal presented in the Senate by the Pdl, Fli, Udc and Lega.
The aim is to insert article 660-bis in the penal code which introduces the crime of "disturbance, obstacle and impediment to hunting and fishing" and to the activity of wildlife catchers.
Hunting and fishing, explains the senator of the PDL Valerio Carrara, first signatory of the bill, "have conditioned human life since time immemorial: for centuries the survival of the human species has been guaranteed precisely by the capture of wild animals and fish" . Today, hunting and fishing are no longer a matter of mere survival, but have taken on «values of a different character: they are - underlines Carrara - a cultural heritage handed down from father to son. Hunting, in particular, is an element of a tradition strongly linked to the land and to the values of rurality ».
Furthermore, the hunting activity, Carrara insists, has become an effective tool for the 'regulation' of the fauna through a targeted series of interventions "which no longer express themselves, as in the past, exclusively in the removal of animals from the environment".
But there are, Carrara attacks, "those who are ideologically opposed, and unfortunately in our country some self-styled animal-environmentalists have gone from words to deeds, transforming the ideological opposition into acts of real 'obstruction', even violent : hunting stalks set on fire or seriously damaged; cut tires on hunters' cars; disturbing actions with sirens and cowbells on the hunting grounds to hinder the hunting activity ».
Hunters and fishermen, Carrara recalls, pay a state and a regional concession tax every year, "and it is right that the state assures them the possibility of exercising the activity, which is, moreover, authorized through special licenses".
Among other things, argues the senator of the PDL, "in order to carry out the hunting activity it is necessary to have particular psycho-physical requisites and to obtain a technical qualification, not easy to obtain, issued by the competent public structures". "This is why - Carrara stresses - it is necessary to introduce in the penal code a rule, with a deterrent value, which is effective in protecting order and tranquility that could be disturbed and endangered by 'contact' with self-styled nature lovers, determined to disturb or hinder the hunting activity ».
In short, a crime of 'disturbance, obstacle and impediment' to hunting and fishing, such as the one recently introduced into French law. A new crime that would be punished with arrest for up to 6 months or, alternatively, with a fine of up to 1.200 euros if it is committed by a single person.
If, on the other hand, the obstructionism is the work of several people, then the penalty increases and you risk ending up in jail for a year, paying, this time obligatorily, a fine that can reach up to 2 thousand 400 euros.
Source: Adnkronos
(28.11.2010)