Another year, another war
I have the greatest respect and admiration for Mario Pedrelli, who gives his life to working in the face of the poaching criminals. He posted the following brief report on the LIPU net and I follow that with comments by Gianluca and LIPU President Alessandro Polinori
Hello everyone,
It’s not easy to write something sensible that has a logical thread (even a temporal one…) after 35 straight days in the field… in Brescia.
Every time, it’s complicated. Both for obvious reasons of physical and mental fatigue, and for the succession of multiple emotions (often bordering on the ‘terrible’ but also some of enormous satisfaction).
I believe that a marathon of 35 days non-stop, with the need to keep attention very high so as not to make any false steps in the study and investigation phases of the phenomenon, as well as not to betray the high professional expectations that the Carabinieri del Soarda have of us, is equivalent to three months of work for an average Italian :-).
It is a personal commitment that is increasing year by year.
Having said that, the numbers, which are still provisional (I will work on them over the next few days), but which I have been dying to give you, are dramatically as follows
– two arrests- More than a hundred people reported
– Almost a hundred rifles seized
– a few thousand cartridges seized
– hundreds of bird nets seized
– Thousands of live and dead birds seized
– 15,000 km by car driven, and hundreds on foot
– Operated in 6 different provinces
I will never tire of reminding and repeating endlessly that, despite the immense effort of ourselves, of many volunteers, and of the Carabinieri del Soarda, in this part of Italy the spread of poaching, the most boorish, the most medieval, the most ‘structured’ and deep-rooted, does not retreat one iota.
For this cursed area, we absolutely must activate every initiative at every possible level to remedy a phenomenon that has more impressive numbers than anywhere else in the country.
I have dubbed this place, without fear of contradiction, the European Passerine Hell.
I would like to end by sincerely thanking for their cooperation our Vicenza Guards, Carlo Catoni, Emiliano De Santis, Andrea Benvenuti for their great professionalism and for putting up with my ‘Each day we say – we sleep tomorrow’, Giovanni Albarella for his precious advice and maniacal organisation of the camp, and the SOARDA Carabinieri for their commitment well beyond their competence.
My enormous thanks also go to the President, the Board, the entire Council, the Supervisory Commission, Luca Demartini, and the Directors who believe in these operations, and who support me (and put up with..) sometimes understanding my ‘hurry’.
Well, I’ll sleep now.
…until tomorrow morning.
Then, towards the Po Delta.
Stay tuned!
A dear greeting to all
Mario
Many congratulations on the great work you do.
An important, indispensable job defending innocent beings waiting to be saved by heroes like each one of you.
I was a LIPU guard for many years, at the age of 18 years I did the first course of hunting guard and then obtain the decree, coordinating the Calabrian guards, with many actions and complaints and from there I left to join the provincial police, where I currently work, I continued the journey and the teachings of people like Piergiorgio Candela and his wife Ida Carlini, historical LIPU guards in action just in Brescia, reading this report I really understand how much commitment there is behind.
I would add that I have denounced many Brescians, and others here in Calabria, and now they no longer come. Poaching is a horrendous crime, an attack on our nature and our winged friends who deserve all our attention and commitment.
Thank you so much for what you do and for what you will do, it is not easy, on the contrary, your perseverance and such high skills are a hope for everyone.
These days, as we look at the robins in our gardens, happy and carefree, we will also think of all those who are committed in various ways so that these little winged friends of ours can fly and live with that happiness that fills our hearts with such joy.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart dear Lipu guards ❤️
Gianluca Congi and all the members of the GLC LIPU SILA
Hi Mario,
Thank you for this detailed and passionate report and also for sharing with us understandably conflicting emotions: on the one hand anger and indignation at still having to witness such actions to the detriment of wild animals, and on the other the satisfaction of having managed to achieve such important results in their defence.
Congratulations to you and to all the team involved in this challenging campaign, as well as to all the Lipu guards throughout Italy who are in action in the field on a daily basis.
As Lipu, we will continue to work, at all levels, so that we can counter such vileness with ever greater effectiveness.
A warm greeting to all
Alessandro Polinori
President Lipu/BirdLife Italia