The son of the President of the United States is accused of hunting several birds.
The images of Donald Trump Jr. shooting birds in a protected area of the Venice Lagoon generated outrage in Italy, according to international media. A video published on a US website showed Trump’s son hunting with a group of friends in an area that members of the Green Party of Italy claim is protected.
Quickly, the Greens demanded that the Minister of Environment and Energy Security, Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, appear before Parliament to give explanations. At first, the commotion centered on the Regional Council of Veneto, whose capital is Venice, according to the EFE news agency.
VIDEO | Un video de Donald Trump junior, hijo del presidente de EE.UU., cazando aves en la laguna de Venecia (norte) está causando indignación en Italia. pic.twitter.com/hMTX737OPL
— EFE Noticias (@EFEnoticias) February 4, 2025
The regional deputy Andrea Zanoni, from Green Europe, denounced that the scenes in which Trump’s son appears “shooting several ducks” were “probably filmed recently in Valle Pirimpie, in Campagna Lupia”, a protected area under European regulations and part of a Natura 2000 site of the EU, as a Special Conservation Area called the medium-low Venice lagoon. He also pointed out that in one frame, Trump’s son can be seen “describing the shot down ducks, among which a ruddy shelduck (Tadorna ferruginea) is seen in the foreground, a very rare duck in all of Europe, almost entirely rust orange in color“.
“This is a protected species throughout Europe under the EU Birds Directive and, of course, under Italian law, which in article 30 sanctions their ‘killing and possession'”, Zanoni stated.
Last December, Trump’s son was on vacation in Venice with his new partner and a group of friends, and took part in a hunting expedition in the lagoon, according to local media. Zanoni recalled that hunting is prohibited for non-residents in Italy.
The controversy will also reach the Italian Parliament, at the request of the Green Left Alliance (AVS), as reported by the aforementioned site. “We ask the Minister of Environment, Pichetto Fratin, to explain what happened, since the killing of protected species is a crime, and if it is true that Trump’s son, son of the US President, was among those participants,” stated AVS deputy Luana Zanella.
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