There is
controversy over the culling of mouflons on the island of Giglio
.
For the Park of the Tuscan Archipelago it is an alien species and harmful to biodiversity, to be captured and controlled in the number of heads.
But animal rights activists rise up.
"The mouflon is one of the 59 huntable species, it is not endangered and not protected, and above all it is an alien and invasive species that creates damage to biodiversity and is responsible for the extinction of at least three types of plants in the world" , says Giampiero Sammuri, president of the Tuscan Archipelago Park. "These are control activities that are carried out by all the parks - underlines Al Giglio, we estimated 40 to 80 mouflons present, which must be eradicated". For the first time this year, with funds from the Life project, the Park has begun to capture mouflons, an activity that will continue in the coming months alongside the culling. "From spring to today we have caught 20 - explains Sammuri -: 10 were transferred to an animal recovery center in Semproniano (Grosseto),and 10 in a farm in Miemo, in the province of Pisa. Therefore, we currently estimate between 20 and 60 mouflons on the island. The capture activities continue, even if very expensive, the other mouflons will be hunted ".
"We are sorry that in the face of this great effort - he concludes -, also made to meet the sensitivity of animal rights activists, there are all these criticisms against us, even of a negationist type, saying that the mouflon was brought to Giglio because it is in danger of extinction. , when it is an alien and invasive species ".
Animal rights activists, however, are on a war footing
.
LAV
with the Save Giglio citizens' committee, wrote a letter to Pascal Canfin, MEP and president of the Environment Committee of the European Parliament, asking for the immediate suspension of the Life LetsGoGiglio project, and the killing of mouflons on the island of Giglio .
The international organization for the protection of animals (Oipa) also criticizes,
according to which, based on the operating regulations for the removal of mouflons from Giglio drawn up by the Park Authority, "the slaughter of mouflons on the island of Giglio will be used by hunters to accumulate points as 'selecontrollori' and to use the carnage for self-consumption ".
