National Wildlife Institute condemned for illegal hunting and cruelty
“On November 26th, I and the director of my institute were condemned for illegal hunting and cruelty towards animals, for the trial eradication of the grey squirrel that I coordinated in Piedmont (north-west Italy) in 1997.
This is the last step of a long story. The National Wildlife Institute, where I work as a researcher, is the Italian government agency for research and management of wildlife. In recent years, we received alarmed communications from several Italian and foreign organisations (including WWF and IUCN) underlying the need to eradicate the introduced grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) from Italy.
UK data show that the grey squirrel causes the extinction of the autochtonous red squirrel (S. vulgaris), and the same is happening in Italy: the red squirrel has in fact disappeared from all of the range colonised by the alien species. There is a real possibility that the Italian population of the grey squirrel will spread to the Alps and to neighbouring countries, potentially causing an ecological catastrophe in all of continental Europe.
In this respect, in 1995 we made an official resolution asking the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Agriculture, and the provincial and regional administrations of Piedmont to eradicate the grey squirrel. Furthermore, in 1996 we asked the Health Ministry to stop the import of grey squirrels.
At the end of 1996 we programmed a trial eradication. For the Italian legislation, our Institute is competent for research and for giving advice on pest control methods, but pest control only can be directly done by regional and provincial wildlife services. The study was based on the experience of coypu in the UK, and was aimed:
- to test the efficency and reliability of an eradication campaign using live trapping
- to carry on sanitary researches to test for the presence of parapoxvirus, that was suspected to be present in the grey squirrel population
The plan was to provide the provincial wildlife services with guidelines for the eradication, based on rthe results from the trial eradication.
The trial eradication programme was sent to NGOs for comments, and opposition to the plans was raised by Animal Rights Groups. For this reason we met the Animal Rights Groups to explain the aims of the programme, and asking for suggestions on how to minimise animals stress. On the basis of the comments we received, we decided to use halothane (an anesthetic that causes little stress in rodents) to tranquillise and euthanise the squirrels. Other suggestions (e.g. taking back the grey squirrels to North America, taking all the animals to an island, neutering all the squirrels and releasing them in the wild) were discussed and rejected by our team.
The programme was officially presented to the regional authorities in April 1997. At a meeting involving NGOs: several NGOs (e.g. WWF, Bird protection organisations) approved the programme, while the League Against Hunting, the League Against Experiments on Animals, and Other Animals (a branch of Legambiente, the second largest environmental NGO in Italy), opposed the project.
We started the trial eradication in May 1997 in the Racconigi Park, and the results were very encouraging: half of the local population was removed within 2 weeks, and the use of halothane determined rapid unconsciusness of animals before euthanasia.
In June we were taken to court by the 3 Animal Rights Groups. The court trial started in 1997 (justice in Italy is very slow); we have been defended by the State lawyer service. An officer of the Ministry of Environment witnessed that we were acting to protect the Italian fauna, and recalled that Italy signed the Rio Convention and the Bern Convention imposing States to eradicate allochtonous species threatening biodiversity.
The Animal Rights Groups were supported by Giorgio Celli, an entomologist at the University of Bologna who is very famous in Italy for his television programme, and was recently elected by the Green Party to the European parliament (during the trial he was in the middle of his electoral campaign).
In the trial they affirmed that it is impossible to eradicate a species (they also affirm that the coypus has not been eradicated from UK); that it is not sure that the grey squirrel replaces the red squirrel; that we should have neuterised all the squirrels instead of “gasing” them.
Incredibly, the judge condemned us (cruelty toward animals for the Italian legislation means to determine sufferences without any purpose, other than the personal enjoyment….). It was very likley that the personal fame of Celli played a role in the decision.
Of course we will appeal, but it will take 2-3 years to arrive to a final judgement. The penalty is a fine of few thousand dollars (for a long time we have been asking for stiffer penalties for poachers; it is good that the parliament did not follow our advice….), but provincial administrators will be unlikely to decide to start the eradication before the legal case is closed.
In the mean while, the grey squirrel rapidly expanded its range, it has recently been recorded very close to the Alps (through hair trap monitoring), and I am quite pessimistic on the possibility to eradicate the species in the future.
The media reported the Animal Rights Groups declarations (including our condemnation as a stop to ‘slaughter’, and asking for a new Institute to protect of allochtonous species in Italy).NGOs (who firstly promoted and supported the eradication trial) adopted a low profile so as not to cause a split between their two internal wings: animal rights and conservation supporters.
All Italian conservationists supported our Institute, but at the moment we have not succeeded in making media report our position. I am trying to contact journalists, and many collegues are doing the same.
If the grey squirrel expands its range as we fear, I hope that this story will at least become an example to show people the threats caused by biological invasions, and to promote the acceptance of eradications as a means for conservation.