Birdhunting in Italy

Italy’s traditional tragedy

The same tragic spectacle repeats itself year after year south of the Alps. No sooner have the autumn migrants crossed the Italian border on their route to Africa, than they fly into a hail of lead from hundreds of thousands of hunters. A total of 40 migrant bird species can be legally hunted in Italy between mid-September and the end of January. The authorities permit each of the 710,000 registered hunters a shooting bag of 30 birds a day on 55 hunting days per year. This results in the death of some 16 million birds in Italy every year.
In some regions, such as around Lake Garda, on Sardinia, and along the south Italian coast, poaching with traps and nets still occurs.

But over the past few years changes have been taking place in Italy. An increasing number of Italians, most of them young, are opposed to hunting. Many of them have formed action groups which, with the support of CABS, have successfully committed themselves to the cause of improved bird conservation and protection. In the context of bird protection camps, volunteer conservationists from many European countries monitor the migration routes and, together with game wardens, the forest police and the Carabinieri, locate and remove illegal traps. Lawyers in Milan and Brescia hired by CABS seek court injunctions for improved bird protection and, in Germany, protest actions against bird trapping and hunting are organised and set in motion.