Deer devastate the fields, off to early hunting

The hunting season will start already this Sunday. Councilor De Bon: «In this way we protect agricultural crops

BELLUNO. Ten days early hunting to meet the needs of farmers. This is the reason that prompted the Province to start the hunting season on August 21st instead of September 1st.

“A few days ago a farmer from Limana stopped me and told me that in his corn field he had found nine deer intent on eating corn on the cob,” Franco De Bon begins the provincial councilor with responsibility for hunting and fishing. “And this is just an example of what happens almost daily in our province with wildlife: we are talking about deer, but also about wild boar. For this reason we asked to be able to anticipate the start of the hunting season for ungulates ».

From Sunday, therefore, hunters will be able to start hunting female and young deer. The decision to target these animals was made a few years ago in the Belluno area, with the green light also from Ispra: “We asked the hunters of our reserves”, De Bon points out, “to go out in the coming days and concentrate in the areas near the cultivated fields to disturb the animals intent on eating the crop ». I would frighten them, but also trim some “bloody shot”, so as to drive away the animals: “Our goal”, explains De Bon, “is twofold: to keep the population of wild animals within certain numbers by sex and age class, but also to ensure conservation and future reproduction. Even if we start early, in fact, the hunting season will be interrupted from mid-September to mid-October for the mating season among ungulates ».

For these animals, but also for corvids, magpies and other birds harmful to crops and livestock, the number to be killed is divided by single reserve: «Once the given number is reached, hunting stops. This is to guarantee their reproduction », says De Bon.

The provincial councilor is satisfied with the results obtained so far: «With the hunting plan launched last year, we have seen that the wild population has stabilized. This means that the method designed to maintain the faunal and environmental balance works, but also to avoid the spread of diseases such as African swine fever, which is transmitted among wild boars ».

De Bon is also keen to underline «the good work that hunters are doing for the wildlife census. Our provincial police officers are reduced to a minimum, so much so that some activities have now been assigned to hunters. So as to keep the agents in charge only of the control of this activity ».

But there is also another novelty: it concerns hunting reserves. According to the new Venetian law on the subject, the board of auditors, formerly made up of shareholders from that reserve, will be replaced by a single auditor. A professional (lawyer or accountant) who must be registered in a specific register posted at the Ministry of Economy and Finance: “While it will impose higher costs for reserves, this rule will prevent whoever controls the accounts is also whoever draws up the accounts », explains provincial councilor De Bona. “There must be no mixing of tasks. The sole auditor may be a member of the reserve but may not be a member of the steering committee which is the body that decides the expenses ».