Get rid of the hunters or lose the tourists!    

At least a 100 million animals are killed in Italy every year, mostly various species of birds, but also hares, wild pigs, deer, roe-buck and fallow-deer. A hundred million animals killed annually, just for fun.   Poaching Poaching is very wide-spread in Italy and even though it is illegal, it is tolerated as a "popular tradition". Birds are captured with arch traps (archetti), spring traps and vertical mist nets in which they remain ensnared, finally dying of starvation after days of agony. Some data: in the course of 2000 and 2001 the LAC (Italian League for the Abolition of Hunting) collected and destroyed more than 30.000 arch traps, 450 nets, and liberated hundreds of birds (robins, sparrows, thrushes, tits, black-birds, etc.) The main anti-poaching camps take place in the valleys around Brescia (from Sept. to Dec.) which abound with arch and spring traps, in which birds remain ensnared by their legs, which they often amputate themselves in order to escape, only to then bleed to death; and in Sardinia where the poachers use nylon noose traps placed on the branches of the Corbezzolo trees (with large sweet red berries) and in which the birds die hanging by their necks. Here in 2001 the LAC ended up with the sad record total of more than 30, 000 traps removed. Cyprus and the Pontine islands (off the coast between Rome and Naples), where the phenomenon is alarming and in expansion especially in spring and during the migratory periods, are other places where the LAC intervenes. Arch traps Arch traps are used to capture small birds. They are used extensively in the Brescian valleys of Trompia, Sabbia and Camonica, in Bergamasco and in some areas of Veneto and Friuli, despite the fact that they have been explicitly illegal for many years.   Poachers make them from hazelnut tree branches, shaped into a horse-shoe; lethal devices capable of springing shut the moment a small bird lands on it. Service tree (sorbo) berries, nick-named "the sorbo of the bird-trappers" from this practice, attract the birds, especially robin red breasts, but also finches, green-finches, black-caps, tits, chiff-chaffs, hawfinches, coccothraustes, etc.   It's impossible to calculate how many arch traps are laid every autumn by the poachers in the woods and glades of the vast area of northern Italy, ready for the arrival of the small migratory birds, but probably millions. Many alpine valleys are also infested with them. The birds caught by their legs remain hanging there in agony for hours with their legs broken by the trap, and with no hope of being saved. The traditional dish of "polenta and birds" served in Veneto and other regions, stimulates the clandestine market for such illegally trapped small birds.   Fowling (live bird trapping with nets) Fowling, on the other hand, is an admitted practice as long as the animals captured don't belong to protected species. In Lombardy alone, for the 30.000 hunters, there exist 10.000 shooting huts where hunters play at target shooting using birds of every species, and often using live imprisoned birds to attract others with their bird-calls.   These little birds, captured and kept imprisoned in tiny cages, are de-feathered in order to provoke a change of feathers out of season; when the new feathers grow out, the bird, having been kept in a dark basement for the entire summer, thinks that it's spring, and starts to call-out for its mate. A finch of this type can cost as much as 100 Euros on the black market. The introduction of animals into hunting zones "Repopulation" is a practice that benefits the hunters in many ways.   On the one hand it allows them to continue hunting even when there's nothing left, in nature, to hunt. Birds and hares are specially bred, like domestic farm animals which live in cages their whole lives, to then be "liberated" a few weeks before the beginning of the massacre on the part of the hunters. These creatures are commonly called animals "ready for hunting".   On the other hand the repopulation of certain areas with domestic wild pigs and roebuck, more prolific than the wild species, has the effect of increasing damage to crops, and nicely leads to the hunters being called in to slaughter them, in order to "restore the balance" upset by the re-introduction itself. The concept of the "overpopulation of animals" is meaningless; the number of animals in nature which are born and reach adulthood is determined by the "carrying capacity" which is influenced by the amount of space and food available. Killing animals doesn't solve the "problem": those that remain become more prolific, and have a greater chance of reaching adulthood, so that within a short time the initial number of animals is restored.   Environmental Damage Despite proclaiming themselves to be "great environmentalists and saying that they love nature, hunters are harmful, not only for the animals, but also for the environment. They disperse several tons of poisonous lead in the countryside every year. In wetlands, the accumulation of significant quantities of lead pellets on the bottom of lakes, ponds and swamps creates "lead poisoning" in animals, dangerous for themselves and also for those who eat them.

Poisoned bait Thousands of animals both wild and domestic, of protected and non protected species, are killed every year by poisoned bait placed in the countryside and in the woods; a barbaric and illegal practice, but one which is ever more wide-spread, particularly in certain regions amongst which, Tuscany, Lazio, Emilia Romagna, Veneto and Calabria.   The victims are cats and dogs (both domestic and stray) and wild animals such as foxes, badgers, weasels and martens and many rare species like wolves, bears, eagles, falcons, various types of owls, imperial crows, herons and cormorants. This bait is also a very real danger to whoever goes walking in the open with their family and pet dogs. Poisoned bait is mainly used to eliminate species considered to be "pests". In wildlife areas the positioning of poisoned bait takes place in spring, the re-population period, prior to the beginning of the hunting season. The animals liberated (mainly pheasant) to be killed by the double-barrel, are so domesticated (they are all bred in captivity) that they even have difficulty flying, much like domestic chickens. These animals are then "protected" from their natural predators who are killed off with poisoned bait, so that the animals in the hunting reserves can be slaughtered in the autumn by the hunters. The placing of poisoned bait is also used by livestock breeders in pastures and cultivated fields where abandoned corpses of animals, stuffed with poison, are left to attract wolves, foxes and predatory birds. Poison is also used to kill trained truffle-detecting dogs belonging to competitors; animals which can be worth up to 2-3 thousand Euros.   After they have entered the food chain, these poisons destroy the natural balance: they kill the animals at the top of the food chain (like wolves, eagles etc.), animals which have the job of keep the foxes and boars population in check. An atrocious death Obviously it is impossible to know the number of wild animals killed by poisoned bait, in any case, a very large number; and even as far as dogs and cats are concerned, only a few people make formal denunciations. For the moment therefore only partial and fragmented data exist, which is nevertheless extremely alarming. In Tuscany, it is certain that thousands of animals are killed every year - in 2002, 127 dogs and 77 cats in the province of Florence alone; extending which figure to the whole of Italy, becomes frightening indeed.   Only someone who has actually watched a dog die of poisoning, can know how awful its suffering and agony is. It is a horrific scene, absolutely unforgettable. Numerous poisons are used, most of which have no anti-dote. Veterinary therapy is generally only supportive, an attempt to help the animal vomit the swallowed substance and to overcome the critical phase. The action of most of these poisons leaves the animal completely conscious, and thus to suffer right up until the end.   In Calabria, a pack of 4 wolves was wiped out by the remains of a poisoned calf, with many other such cases also having been registered in Abruzzo and Tuscany. Tens of vultures found dead in the mountains of Lucretili, in Lazio and in the Madonie mountains in Sicily, to cite only some of the rare species hit. A very rare Royal Eagle ended up poisoned in the WWF oasis in the gorge of Sagittario, in Abruzzo, a region where no more than 10 pairs exist. In its gizzard It had the remains of its last meal, a fox hit in its own turn by this chain of death which presently afflicts the most uncontaminated corners of our country.   Poisoned bait continues to disseminate death in our countryside. Cats and dogs and wildlife die amidst atrocious suffering. There have also been cases very close to houses, with the fear that one day or the other, poisoned bait will end up in the hands of a child. Yet little or nothing is even said about this problem, and nothing is done to stop it, despite its being an illegal practice which constitutes a penal offence. Examples of poisoned bait Poisoned bait takes the form of meat-balls, biscuits or the remains of animals stuffed with poison. The baits contain lethal cocktails of pesticides and poisons of every type: from herbicides, metaldehyde, zinc phosphate, anti-coagulants used normally as rat poison, to the extremely potent strychnine, of which only 50 grams is needed to kill 1,000 people and 3,000 dogs, and whose liberal sale is prohibited by law.   Hunting not only kills animals, but people as well Not only do birds and other animals fall pray to the blasts of the double-barrel, but the hunters themselves and unfortunate hikers are also victims of frequent accidents. During the 2001/2002 hunting season 47 people were killed, an average of 10 a month. The count also includes 66 wounded and 5 left permanently invalid. This data, contained in a Eurispes dossier, was published on the official opening day of the following hunting season which started on the 19th September 2002.