It’s not over, unfortunately the story of the killing of the Giglio mouflons and the extermination seems to continue, even though the activists have never left the island and are resisting to prevent the slaughter of even the last specimens. Despite the announcement made by the Tuscan Archipelago Park administration a few weeks ago that all mouflons had been eradicated, many selective hunters, commissioned by the region, landed on the island with their dogs and trying to track down the last survivor of the massacre.
“All this is shameful and we must stop it absolutely,” comments Sara d’Angelo, president of the Vita da cani association and coordinator of the Network of Free Animal Shelters at the forefront of the defense of these animals – This is clear evidence that the Park Administration and the Region of Tuscany want with their the project of death to go to the end.” express your indignation by calling to Tuscany, the Park Administration and the Ministry of the Environment. The numbers of protest participants are published on our social media pages.”
For animal rights organizations that have led the fight against killing in recent years, the Giglio Mouflon Eradication Project violated national and European regulations: “The rules actually state that any removal of species from the territory is based on scientific data, but despite not having this information, as the park itself admitted, the authority still presented its project to the EU, which received 1 million and 600 thousand euros, exaggerating the damage to economy caused by the mouflon and declares that its eradication is necessary to save the island’s viticulture. Too bad though the winemakers cleared Mouflon of these accusations already in 2021 through a petition and that thanks to a series of requests for access to documents, we learned that in 20 years the park received only 3 requests for compensation for damage caused by mouflons in the total amount of 400 euros compared to almost 400 thousand euros obtained from the EU for their eradication.
There is therefore only one conclusion for associations: «In the absence of proven damage, exterminating the Giglio mouflon is a crime. This project had no reason to exist – concludes d’Angelo – it lacks the scientific and economic prerequisites for continuation. But not only that, because at the same time he ignored fundamental elements such as the genetic uniqueness of the mouflon present only in Giglio. For these reasons, we have already taken steps to report the ecological disaster to the chairman of the park administration, Giampiero Sammuri.”