Italy: Only 3 percent expect more recreational hunting, not even the governing parties' voters

While the Italian Chamber of Deputies deliberates on a relaxation of the hunting act, one of the largest surveys ever conducted on recreational hunting in Europe has been published.

On behalf of Fondazione Capellino, Ipsos Doxa surveyed a total of 7,002 adults between 28 July and 4 August 2026, online and weighted according to quotas for gender, age, region, education, employment status and municipality size. The result leaves little room for interpretation. The full analysis is available here: Ipsos Doxa for Fondazione Capellino: «Caccia e biodiversità: il pensiero dei cittadini italiani» (PDF, Italian).

The figures

27 percent wish to abolish recreational hunting entirely. 13 percent want to reduce it so drastically that it disappears. 35 percent want to allow it only in a few emergencies. Together that is 75 percent. 17 percent would like to keep the current regulation, 6 percent have no opinion. 3 percent are in favour of promoting recreational hunting.

Some Italian media reported that 91 percent were calling for abolition. That is not quite accurate: this figure only results if you include those who want to keep the status quo. What is correct is that 91 percent do not want an expansion. And it is precisely an expansion that is currently being debated in parliament.

Even its own base does not want it

Politically, the breakdown by party is the most sensitive. Among voters of Fratelli d'Italia, 68 percent want to abolish recreational hunting, phase it out or limit it to emergencies. For the Lega, the figure is 66 percent, for Forza Italia and Noi Moderati 63 percent, for Futuro Nazionale 62 percent. In none of these electorates do more than 6 percent wish to see it promoted. Notably, it is precisely among Lega voters – traditionally the voice of the recreational hunting lobby – that the share wanting a complete ban is highest of the entire governing coalition, at 27 percent.

Among the opposition, the figures are even higher: 83 percent for the Partito Democratico, 84 percent for the Movimento 5 Stelle, 87 percent for Alleanza Verdi e Sinistra. Rejection of recreational hunting is not a left-wing position in Italy. It is consensus.

Unsafe, environmentally damaging, economically insignificant

82 percent consider recreational hunting to be not entirely or not at all safe, explicitly including for people out in the woods or on hiking trails during the season. Nearly half, 49 percent, choose the strongest wording. Even among Fratelli d'Italia voters, 77 percent see a safety problem, and among Lega voters it is 83 percent. Our article shows why this concern is justified Italy: War against the Population with Hunting Rifles.

61 percent consider the environmental impact of recreational hunting to be very high, due to the pollutants left behind in the terrain and the damage done to wildlife populations. Only 23 percent believe the narrative that recreational hunters are among the most careful users of nature.

Asked what will drive rural areas forward over the next twenty years, 53 percent named gentle nature tourism and 50 percent new jobs in a nature-compatible economy. Organic farming follows with 35 percent and forest management with 31 percent. Recreational hunting comes last with 3 percent, far behind artificial intelligence. Fittingly: a rich wildlife population is seen by 34 percent as a moral obligation towards future generations, by 33 percent as an economic resource for gentle tourism, and 19 percent believe that living nature is worth more than dead nature. Only 3 percent see it as a resource for recreational hunting.

A law for 3 percent

For 74 percent, the protection of the environment and biodiversity is an essential issue, with an average score of 8.3 out of 10. Half of respondents feel the Meloni government is doing too little about it. Even within its own camp, 27 percent say so.

That same government is pushing through a reform of framework law 157 of 1992, which regulates the protection of wildlife fauna. The bill, dubbed "sparatutto" ("shoot everything") by critics, has already been passed by the Senate and is now with the Chamber of Deputies' agriculture committee. The animal welfare organisation ENPA accuses it of replacing the protection of fauna with its mere "management". The Fondazione Capellino had already mobilised against the bill in autumn 2025, as we reported in Capellino Foundation: reason instead of lead romanticism.

Commentary: The minority with the rifle rules

Three percent. That is the size of the social base for what is about to become law in Rome. The fact that such a small group shapes the legislation of an entire country is not an Italian phenomenon, but the business model of the recreational hunting lobby everywhere: well organised, disproportionately represented in parliaments and administrations, and never at a loss to present its own leisure pursuit as a service to the public. The survey shows that the public never ordered this service.

Switzerland knows this pattern. Around 30,000 recreational hunters, a good three per mille of the population, shape hunting laws, kill quotas, and the handling of wolves, lynx and foxes. That things can be done differently has been proven since 1974 by canton of Geneva: there, the population abolished recreational hunting at the ballot box, and wildlife management works. We have compiled what recreational hunting actually costs the public in the dossier What recreational hunting really costs Switzerland.

A survey of this scale and depth would also be overdue for Switzerland. Anyone certain they are acting in the name of the public has nothing to fear from 7,002 answers. Our Ticino Ticker 2026/27 documents what recreational hunting looks like right on Italy's doorstep. The dossier Hunting Myths: 12 Claims Examined.