Italian hunter shoots dead his father after mistaking him for a wild boar

Italy’s hunters have been accused of behaving like Wild West cowboys after a son mistook his father for a wild boar and shot him dead.

There are hunting accidents every year in Italy, with dozens of people injured, but it is rare for one family member to kill another.

The men were on a wild boar hunt on Sunday near the village of Sicignano degli Aburni, in the southern region of Campania, when the accident happened.

The 34-year-son heard his hunting dogs barking, noticed a movement in some bushes, and fired a shot.

But instead of taking down a boar, he had hit his 55-year-old father in the stomach. The man, named as Martino Gaudioso, died shortly afterwards.

The son has been charged with manslaughter and had his firearms confiscated.

The pair were not only out in the woods before the official start of the hunting season on October 2, they were also in an area where hunting is expressly forbidden at any time of the year.

Michela Vittoria Brambilla, a former government minister who now campaigns for animal rights, said it was time to clamp down on trigger-happy hunters.

“Enough with this Wild West behaviour in the countryside and the forests. The authorities cannot continue to portray the high number of deaths and injuries as something natural and inevitable,” she said.

She called for the banning of all hunting – a suggestion which will be fiercely opposed by the hunting lobby and is unlikely to happen.

Last September, an 18-year-old man was fatally shot after being mistaken for a wild boar.

Nathan Labolani was walking his dog in the woods near Apricale, 10 miles north of Ventimiglia, close to the French border, when he was shot in the abdomen by a hunter armed with a Winchester rifle.

In October, a 20-year-old man, Marco Tosti, was shot dead after being mistaken for a boar in mountains about 40 miles north of Rome.

Anti-hunting activists said that hikers, dog walkers and mushroom collectors who ventured into the woods during the hunting season were “gambling with death”.

There are so many hunting accidents in Italy that there is even a national lobby group dedicated to those who are shot – the Association of Victims of Hunting.

According to the association, 22 hunters were killed and 68 were wounded during the 2017-2018 hunting season.