Halt! Private property!

When we bought our house and the generous plot of land that came with it, we were hoping to find some tranquility at last. But this tranquility is currently far away at times. I already told you about hunters some time ago. And today I'd like to have another go at them because I'm slowly getting fed up with their arrogant and uneducated ways. Before you ask, I'm a carnivore and since humanity has survived primarily on meat and fish for the last three million years I see no need why I should change. But there are limits and hunters should learn to respect not only animal rights but also the rights of the people who live in their "recreational area". In brief, the hunters over here show absolutely no respect at all for private property. Yes, they have the law at their side. In Italy you have to enclose your land with a fence of at least 1,20m high if you want to keep hunters out. Otherwise they have the right to roam as they like. This right, however, is not absolute. They are not to come within 100m from houses and domestic animals. Meaning that, technically speaking, they're not allowed to come into our field. Fence or not.

Unfortunately, as I already mentioned, I have to conclude that Italian hunters seem to have failed to evolve since the dawn of the neolithicum. It's temping to generalise but really, I still have to meet the first educated hunter. All the ones I've come across so far are careless, arrogant, rude and have a serious portion of raving insanity over them. Some even seem that old that it would surprise me if they'd still see the difference between a deer and a man at 100m anyway.

My problem now is that they don't care about the chains with the "private property" signs through which I've closed off every entry to our house and field. They just do as they please. They even pass right in front of our house! Through our terrace! And then there are the excuses...

- "But we're not doing any harm to anyone"

- "Our guns are still bagged up"

- "I'm just going downhill"

- "We haven't got any dogs"

or the following hilarious quote:

- "I didn't know that anyone lived here" (strange if you've just passed the new letterbox that Christine made, ignored the "private property" sign and you're standing in front of a restored house with curtains, terrace furniture and the whole lot.)

To my opinion, hunting should be left to professionals. People who know what they are doing and who only hunt in order to maintain the natural balance, given that there aren't enough natural predators anymore. But who am I of course...

On the optimist side, we haven't had as much trouble with hunters lately as at the start of the hunting season. Hopefully they're slowly beginning to understand that they have to keep away. Obviously, if you only have one braincell... Perhaps we should give them a bit more time... :-)