Wildlife: Coldiretti Grosseto, “Black” Weekend in Maremma: A wild boar causes a road accident in Castiglione della Pescaia and in Saturnia the wolves maul 16 sheep. Coldiretti ready to return to the streets to ask for urgent containment and management measures.
Grosseto: Black weekend in Maremma between road accidents caused by wild boars and new slaughters of flocks among farmers. Two episodes a few hours apart: one in Castiglione della Pescaia, the other in Saturnia. The farmers of Coldiretti are ready to return to the streets to ask for urgent measures from the Tuscany Region to also protect road safety and citizens. The wildlife emergency is no longer just a problem for farmers and the countryside but increasingly for cities and urban areas with Tuscany which, also in 2023, confirms itself as the region in Italy with the highest number of accidents caused by wild animals. The latest episode dates back to the night between 23 and 24 June on the Padule road in the municipality of Castiglione delle Pescaia: a car, with three boys on board, overturned to avoid hitting a wild boar that suddenly appeared from the side of the road.
Only by a miracle did the three young people emerge unscathed from this terrible accident. The same night, on a sheep farm in Saturnia, sixteen sheep were mauled by wolves, and others are still missing. “The measure is guilt. Thats enough. – thunders Simone Castelli, President of Coldiretti Grosseto – What we have been asking the institutions for a long time and we will do it forcefully again with a new mobilization, are rapid and effective interventions and extraordinary containment plans as provided for by the Interministerial Decree of 13 June 2023 to guarantee safety in the countryside, but also in the cities. There is no more time, we need to intervene immediately.”
Alongside the feeling of exasperation due to the out-of-control presence of wild boars and predators, there is a growing feeling of impotence on the part of farmers and breeders who on a daily basis, especially in this part of Tuscany, have to deal with the destruction of crops and the killing of sheep. But not only. The reasons for concern are increasingly also health-related: wild boars are the main vectors of Swine Fever and its spread in the Maremma could endanger the survival of pig farms and create considerable inconvenience for tourism, leading the health authorities to trigger bans on mushroom and truffle picking, fishing activities and even trekking, mountain biking and all other activities that could lead to direct or indirect interaction with infected wild boars. According to a recent estimate by Coldiretti Grosseto, over the last decade predation has caused the disappearance of 500 sheep farms and at least 40 thousand animals throughout the province while sightings in homes and cities are multiplying. “In the 70 years that I have been doing this job, a massacre of this proportion has never happened. – says Enrico Dionisi, a farmer from Saturnia – And I have always lived in this countryside, among these pastures”. For Coldiretti Grosseto “the balance has been broken and must be restored. – concludes President Castelli – We are ready to take to the streets with thousands of farmers and breeders”.
