Mark, cut and paste from here -x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x- ATTEMPTS TO CIRCUMVENT, AND TO BETRAY THE SPIRIT OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY BIRD DIRECTIVES Dear Prime Minister Berlusconi, Dear Ministers, Dear Senators, Dear Parliamentary Group, It is with bewilderment and total disbelief that we learn of the proposals in the draft legislation now before the Italian Parliament to change the Italian Hunting Law 157/92. This is a clear abuse of the federal system which should work to support the national structure (and through it the European Community as a whole) and not to undermine the letter and spirit of the laws made for the benefit of the majority of citizens and approved by them. As European citizens we can not permit such a blatant disregard of, and affront to, the European directives designed to protect our common natural resources and heritage to pass uncommented. In going ahead with the plan to delegate hunting controls to federal level, thereby weakening or removing entirely protection for European bird species, many of them rare or endangered, you will be disqualifying your nation from taking its place in the group of civilised nations in the European Union and obstructing its political and cultural development. We will do all in our power to protest and work against such attempts to permit irreparable damage to our European bird populations. Trapping, killing and maiming of birds by a small but vociferous minority is not only illegal in most European countries; these practices are regarded by an increasing majority of people as a sign of moral and cultural poverty and evidence of innate personal brutality. That such barbaric minorities (the number of registered hunters in your country has dropped by about 50% in the last 10 years) are still pandered to by political parties cannot be justified by the wishes of the majority of voters; it reeks of corruption, currying of political favour and manipulation of the democratic system. We urge you to work for the withdrawal of the government's and individual members draft bills and to use your influence, or that of your party members, to resist the approval of new legislation in defiance of the wishes of the majority of your citizens; and certainly of the vast majority of the members of the European Community. We remain, with eyes and ears firmly focussed on your progress in this disgraceful matter, yours faithfully, [Name and address]
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