In Italy, a hunter is almost omnipotent. He doesn't need to undergo any psychological or technical exam prior to being given a license. He's merely "supposed" to know the rules. And there are very few rules. In fact, as far as Italy is concerned, the situation is not far off of being a Far West. Not suprisingly, in this country there's an average of over 50 mortal incidents each hunting season. The number of injuries is of course much higher. Hunters can happily enter private land and shoot as they like. They only have to maintain a distance of 100m to houses. But what is 100m of course. If you want to keep hunters away from your property, you need to close it off by a fence of at least 1,20m high and put visible "private property" signs on regular intervals. Meaning, to close let's say a 100m perimeter you're easily in for a 300-400€ expense without the poles. If, like in our situation, you have to enclose 2 hectares, this is as good as impossible. Just putting signs or putting a plastic rope or chain isn't good enough. Obviously the Italian legislator has made it so difficult for private house owners that they'll usually give up and let the hunters have their way.
Last Sunday the hunting season started. Christine and I were still in bed when we heard a shotgun fire really close by. A bit later when we were outside, in front of our house, we suddenly saw a hunter fire at a partridge in the middle of our field. Roughly 60m away from us! He came barging into our field and I went to meet him because I wouldn't have that. I was still only 20m away from him when he suddenly raised his gun and fired in the air at another partridge. The argument that followed wasn't pleasant at all. Especially when his dogs suddenly entered our garden and started chasing our hens. Christine and I chased them away of course. But this made the hunter even more furious. Up to the point that he started making hidden threats. He went back uphill, to his mate who was standing there, laughing. And then they just stood there, observing us. Every now and then they took their binoculars to look at Christine and I and when they noticed we were still there, they made angry gestures. Fortunately, after half an hour or so, they went away.
In the mean time I've already put "no hunting" signs everywhere. And I've dug a little deeper into the Italian hunting law. In fact, it seems to make a difference between a private garden and private land for agricultural purposes. Because under no circumstances a hunter is allowed to enter a garden. It's the "private agricultural land" that has to be closed off by a fence. And there is more. A hunter also has to remain at least 100m away from domestic animals. Which includes the normal cats and dogs but also horses, cows and... hens! :-) So I've put the new henhouse at such a distance from our house that basically no hunter can still come into our field. I've also been thinking to put our old, plastic garden furniture towards the far end, to really make it look like a "garden".
I can understand that the hunters must really be frustrated. Our field is the perfect hunting ground because from the field above you can take a very nice pop shot into ours. Our house has been abandoned for forty years so there has never been anything in their way. But as from now, they're technically no longer allowed to come, let alone hunt, in our field. And on top of that also a large portion of the field above has become off limits due to its less than 100m distance to our house.
Christine and I don't care in the least. On the other hand, we're very much afraid because it's clear that there are a lot of cowboys among these hunters who don't give a toss about the rules. A good advice a friend gave us is to keep a camera nearby. So whenever a demented hunter tries something illegal, we'll have a picture as proof to the authorities. And hopefully they'll listen...
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