Italy: Party Launches Referendum to Abolish Recreational Hunting
Michela Vittoria Brambilla sits in the Italian Chamber of Deputies for Forza Italia and is the founder of the new party “Movimento Animalista.”
Michela Vittoria Brambilla sits in the Italian Chamber of Deputies for Forza Italia and is the founder of the new party «Movimento Animalista».
The former Minister of Tourism has now attracted widespread attention with a bold campaign initiative. She is launching a campaign for a referendum to abolish recreational hunting in Italy.
Her goal is to enshrine “non-human persons” in the constitution. She believes the time has come, as Italian media report.
92 Percent Voted Against Recreational Hunting
There was already a referendum on the abolition of recreational hunting back in 1990. At the time, the required quorum was not reached. However, of the nearly 44 percent of eligible voters who participated, 92 percent voted against recreational hunting.
Brambilla now wants to win over those citizens who in the past did not express their opinion on the matter. The vast majority of Italians are opposed to this anachronistic and violent practice. “The mentality of Italians has changed and we are therefore ready to make a quantum leap in the name of animals and their rights,” says the politician. “Giving rights to those who have no voice is a mark of civilisation.”
Her idea naturally meets with criticism from recreational hunters and hunting associations in Italy. Criticism of recreational hunting is also growing in Switzerland.
More on the subject of recreational hunting: The scientific evidence is presented in the overview Studies on the Effects of Recreational Hunting.
The position of IG Wild beim Wild: IG Wild beim Wild rejects recreational hunting. Our model is the canton of Geneva, which has managed without recreational hunting since 1974: without hunting seasons, without hunting dogs, without driven hunts, without high seats, without the animal cruelty and crime that go hand in hand with hunting season elsewhere. What has worked there for over fifty years disproves every position paper by JagdSchweiz. An association that bases its policy on claims it refutes in its own documents is not a professional organisation, but a factory for misinformation.
