In the 2010/2011 hunting season there were 100 victims, 25 dead and 75 injured. Mostly in Tuscany, Sardinia, Lombardy and Veneto. Overall it went well, considering that for months Italy is transformed into a shooting range. A wood is more dangerous than the war zones of Afghanistan. During an Autumn walk, the sound of birds singing is replaced by the roar of rifles. If you don’t run, you become the wild boar, the hare or the deer. And not even within the walls of your own home are you safe. “Our house is in a zone frequented by hunters in Ceglie. At times you happen to hear gun fire even when it’s the closed season for hunting. It happens that the hunters are shooting at a distance of 10-15 metres from my house. One morning in January, at the first light of dawn, while we were asleep, we were woken with a start by a loud sound of glass shattering. A blast of lead shot had hit the window of the bedroom where my sons (aged 15.11 and 5) sleep, shattering the glass” (12/9/2010)
“A lady from Bellaguarda di Viadana (Mantova) was hit by pellets issuing form a hunter who was aiming at a hare while she was taking her children (aged 8 and 13) to school. The two children were unhurt while the woman was slightly hurt on her thigh. There was a lot of fear given that a mass of pellets was lodged in the door of the house, just missing them.” (22/9/2010)
”It was 12:30 when a shot ruined the Sunday for a family living in Roana (photo). The bullet made a hole in the front door of the two storey villa and it lodged in the opposite wall just above the table on the first floor where the daughter of the couple was having lunch.” (13/10/2010)



“A young lass was grazed on her face by rifle shot from a hunter at Rocchetta Palafea in the langa astigiana. When it happened, the twelve year old was playing in the yard at home.” (11/10/2010)

You also put your life at risk on the roads and the motorways, in the car or on a bicycle.
”On the A5 motorway between Quincinetto and Ivrea a car travelling towards Turin was hit by a bullet shot by a group of hunters looking for wild boar. The bullet damaged the car’s rear window and in the car was a 31 year old man from Verrès and his son. The bullet lodged in the boot at the back of the car...." (20/12/2010)
”They were pedalling along on their bicycles, when they were injured by pellets exploded by a hunter whose identity is still a mystery. This happened in the hamlet called Jano di Scandiano, in the province of Reggio Emilia to two amateur cyclists aged 58 and 54, mistaken for wild animals during a peaceful Sunday outing. One was hit in the buttocks, while the other was hit in the lobe of his right ear: they were immediately taken to the hospital at Scandiano.” (27/9/2010) (*)

If it’s not possible (for now) to prohibit hunting, shootings can be limited near homes and roads. To do that, article 842 of the Civil Code needs revising. It was brought in, in fascist times to allow hunting on private land. (**) An unconstitutional article that represents a violation of the principle of equality of citizens before the law (article 3) and they have to revise the right to have property (article 42). My lawyers are checking up how to proceed.

(*) The information is from the website: http://www.vittimedellacaccia.org/
(**) Hunters cannot have access to land only if it is fenced for the whole perimeter with fencing of a height equal to or higher than 1.20 metres.