Coming "anti nutria" agents armed with carbines. Via the training of the men of the metropolitan police of Venice who, taking up their rifles, will have the task of keeping the proliferation of nutria, almost omnipresent pest rodents in the Venetian countryside. This was established by the reference manager of the body, Nicola Torricella, who entrusted him in an ad hoc determination the training of officers in the use of long-barreled shotguns: it will take place with specialized personnel in skeet shooting from Cava Zuccherina, in Jesolo, where those in charge will be able to practice shooting with long-barreled guns, also from the distance.
"To proceed with the organization and efficient management of the control and eradication interventions of the nutria by the Metropolitan Police personnel, it is necessary to carry out some sessions of shooting with specific long-barreled weapons ", reads the determination, which motivates the" war "measure to control the beaver population:" The annual increase of the species is very consistent - continues the document - due to the high reproductive rate, the favorable climate present in the metropolitan area and good food availability ». And the problems grow in proportion to the number of otters: from the erosion of the embankments due to the rodent tunnels, with the consequent hydraulic risk but also the overturning of tractors, up to the damage to the crops that the otters use as a source of food and to the compromise of the other animal species that live with the beavers.
Farmers and related trade associations who have been asking for solutions for a long time, in addition to the periodic sampling of the animals. "In the countryside of Eraclea, on the coast, where I live, there are about two or three for every hectare", explains Marco Aurelio Pasti, president of Confagricoltura Venezia. "In the past we have tried to raise the problem, now we ask for continuous intervention, both on the public and private sides, for this animal that damages companies and the ecosystem ». The specimens are widespread in almost all the provinces. But it is above all the municipalities of eastern Veneto that are asking for interventions against rodents: about twenty have been foreseen so far.
«There are over 4 million specimens in Veneto», Andrea Colla, president of Coldiretti Venice, calculates. «It is not a native species, it does not have a predator that contains it and it is an animal that reproduces quickly. Only in coastal locations over a million of them live. We ask the Region and the government for a containment plan to contain the coypu in our countryside, the police intervention is a first step, then we will see how the situation will evolve ".