In 1836 the Tipografia Minerva published the volume with the title "Statistical-Medical Topography Essay of the Province of Brescia" who described the events of cholera in that period in our province. The author, Dr. Guglielmo Menis describes many aspects of our city, especially from a health point of view but also from a social point of view, dedicating a lot of space to habits of Brescia at that time. One chapter is entitled “Entertainment and fun for the people outside the city. An autumn day ". It seems interesting to us to propose a passage.
Anyone wishing to form a correct idea of the character of this people would only have to pass by one day in Brescia feast of the month of October. He would see him early in the morning competing crowded on the square of edibles to stock up on what must be used to make him spend the day happily, giving preference to the little birds that in sometimes overflowing quantities were put up for sale there at that time, since they are generally the Brescians extremely transported for such food". Extremely transported ... this image aroused in a doctor who observed from the outside a population defined in another passage makes us smile "... with a frank and lively character characterized by loyalty of feelings, sincere and joyful cordiality". That's when we talk about traditions both in our column or in many conversations we don't do it nonsense but because we faithfully report one of the traditions that are part of our land.
We are convinced that not only must they be safeguarded but that they must also be adapted to the Italy of 2022 since we cannot pretend to behave as in the Brescia described by Dr. Menis almost 190 years ago. We can therefore only applaud the initiative of the Lega regional councilor Floriano Massardi who presented a bill that governs, with the aim of protecting, the free transfer by hunters of a certain number of birds to restaurants and trattorias in our area.
The possibility of using birds, obviously belonging to huntable species, in the skewers of our restaurants was banned in 2014 and at the time about 120 activities were estimated to be damaged by this choice: if we hypothesize 10 people per activity, some of which have a long family tradition, many people were damaged, sacrificed on the altar of militant animalism. So Massardi, supported by his party since he presented the initiative flanked by the provincial secretary of the Lega Alberto Bertagna, not only wants to try to support a tradition but also to give oxygen to a compartment, that of catering, tried by the crisis caused by the Covid epidemic. As we said, this law governs an existing regional regulation which in turn transposes a national regulation on the marketing of wildlife. Basically a hunter can give up to a maximum of 150 birds regularly taken during the hunting season from a restaurant that can then use them in the preparation of the spit to give that extra touch that makes this dish delicious and sought after.
It takes courage to make proposals of this kind in a society, ours, which seems to have lost memory of its roots and its history. It takes courage to challenge some animal rights activists, who are sometimes violent not only in words but also in actions, on the ground of culture and traditions. Finally, it takes courage to oppose choices made from above, in this case from Rome, which have however damaged our economy and annihilated our traditions. But those who face this type of initiative, those who have the courage to express their ideas by taking a clear position in favor of hunting he knows he is not alone in Brescia.
We are a huge province with a rather small capital city in terms of number of inhabitants if compared to the rest of Brescia. This means that most still inhabits the countryside and the valleys. Small mountain centers and tiny hamlets of the plains or large isolated farmhouses. The culture and tradition of hunting are still rooted even if the practitioners unfortunately decrease every year: idioms, eating habits just like the spit of which each family keeps the recipe of its own version, but also well-known figures in each country mean that the time when hunting will be alien to our beautiful province is still far away. (Source FEDERCACCIA BRESCIA - HUNTING THOUGHTS)