Mouflon hunting on Elba and Giglio stopped
A boycott campaign by Italian animal welfare activists has prevented the planned killing of mouflons on the islands of Elba and Giglio.
An initiative by Italian animal welfare organisations, which had called for a boycott of the popular holiday islands of Giglio and Elba in Tuscany over plans to kill mouflons, has produced results.
EU funds for killing mouflons
Giampiero Sammuri, President of the Tuscan Archipelago Park, to which the islands belong, announced the temporary suspension of hobby hunting of the wild sheep.
Almost 400,000 euros were funded through the LIFE programme of the EU to carry out the action in the name of environmental protection and the preservation of biodiversity. The intervention, which is part of a 1.6 million euro LIFE project (Lets Go Giglio), has drawn heavy criticism from locals, non-governmental organisations, and scientists.
Similar mistakes were made by the same partners in at least two earlier LIFE projects on the islands of Pianosa and Montecristo. On Pianosa, the project mistakenly initiated the killing of the last remaining specimens of a rare European hare species, now considered extinct on the continent. On Montecristo, 14 tonnes of poison pellets were sprayed from a helicopter as part of the project, in violation of national and EU regulations.
It is unacceptable to animal welfare organisations that, at such a critical time for the environment, EU funds designated for the protection of nature are being misused for its destruction.
««We have suspended the killing of mouflons on the island of Giglio and are awaiting further meetings with the animal welfare organisations. There is consensus that the mouflons should not remain on the island of Giglio», said Sammuri according to media reports.
Non-lethal solutions available
The park director held talks with the president of the Italian League for the Protection of Animals and the Environment, Michela Vittoria Brambilla. Two solutions are being considered: either the mouflons will be relocated to wildlife areas on the Italian mainland, or they will remain on the island in a fenced area.
Hobby hunters had already begun killing the approximately 30 mouflons on the island of Giglio. The animal welfare association AIDA had protested against this. «We call on all Italian and foreign tourists to boycott these two islands over the Christmas holidays, and we urge those who have already booked a stay to cancel their reservations», the association had stated.
The mouflons were brought to the islands in the 1950s to protect them and preserve the species. It has been repeatedly pointed out that several non-lethal solutions exist, including sterilisation and immunocontraception. Animal welfare organisations are calling on the government to approve the introduction of the immunocontraceptive vaccine GonaCon in Italy, which has already been used successfully in other countries for some time.
