The Coordination of Calabrian Hunting Associations (Federcaccia, Free Hunt, Enalcaccia, Arci Caccia, Anuu, Italcaccia ed Eps) addressed a few days ago to the competent regional institutions to express the urgent need for an operational discussion on hunting issues in order to find concrete and urgent solutions and reiterate the request for opening of a technical table to this end, instances put forward several times, but remained without any response. At the base, the news of the start by the Provincial Health Authority of Catanzaro of training courses addressed to the foremen of the boar hunting company to obtain the qualification of "Trained hunter".
Without going too far into legislative technical matters, the course and related qualification are required in compliance with the guidelines dictated by the EU and also implemented by Italy for the food safety of hunted wild game and for its marketing and for the supply of small quantities of game meat directly from the hunter to the consumer. The coordination has nothing to object to the establishment of the course, if it is intended to ensure greater awareness in practitioners and safety for those who consume the hunted game. However we cannot avoid expressing some perplexities.
The first concerns the particularly high cost of the course, entirely borne by the participants, while in other Calabrian Asps the courses were activated without costs for individual hunters. Another reason for doubt is the lack of unique regional lines for the contents of the course and its duration. Of the latter aspect, in particular, it is striking that the courses provided by the Asp of Catanzaro consist of 10 hours of lessons, against the 16 provided for by the regulation.
Finally, if the courses are set up for a sacrosanct desire to protect public health, we cannot help but wonder because the Region has never replied to the letter sent by the Coordination last October in which an urgent meeting was requested to establish the ways in which the best logistic organization on the entire Calabrian territory could be ensured by the Veterinary Service, such as to guarantee the prompt verification of the wild boar heads killed by the individual teams to avoid the presence of wild animals affected by tuberculosis. It will not be by chance that by training the hunters, moreover at their expense, yesDo i want to unload on them the responsibilities of the ASL veterinarians? We are sure this is an excessive concern, but this time, finally, we would like the Region to tell us.