FACE brought to general attention an article published by the British newspaper The Independent in which reference is made to Italy and to the turtledove. According to the association, the piece is full of errors and creates no little confusion. Here is the text of the president's letter Torbjorn Larsson to the editor: “On April 27, 2021, Joe Sommerlad of 'The Independent' published a misleading article with defamatory quotes against my organization: 'Italy allows hunters to shoot 7,5 million turtle doves: this will accelerate the decline until there are no more birds left'.
The article states that hunting associations in Italy "have done nothing to stop the decline" of the Tortora. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. Every year, thousands of hectares are actively managed for the Tortora by the hunting community, with a cost of hundreds of thousands of euros from the funds of the hunters. The article claims that 7,5 million turtledoves are killed in Italy, but a quick check of the facts shows that only 135.000 birds are collected. Furthermore, the most recent EU (governmental) data show that the breeding population of Tortora in Italy is stable in the short-term trend and increasing in the long-term trend. The affirmations "Keep blowing up the last turtle doves from the sky" or "shoot until there are no more birds left" are simply sensational.
Such a level of inaccuracy and misinformation should not be tolerated by any newspaper. The article correctly states that the UK has failed to conserve the species, but Italy is not the UK. In fact, the greatest losses of turtle dove are recorded in those countries without hunting such as the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, which have lost about 90% of their birds. Perhaps you could ponder why the UK and other non-hunting countries are failing so miserably to preserve the species, before mistakenly blaming Italian hunters. You can learn a lot from fact checking, but might these not be sensational enough for your readers? I urge you to republish this article with these inaccuracies corrected and I trust that you will publish this letter, which sets the record straight ”.