THOUSANDS of Italians have responded to a television and newspaper campaign to “Save Bambi” by halting the slaughter of 600 roe deer and fawns.

The regional authorities in Piedmont in northern Italy are offering local hunters €110 (£75) for every adult deer killed and €40 for each fawn. The cull of roebucks is due to begin in the wine-producing Apennines near Alessandria, Acqui Terme and Gavi next week, with female deer and fawns being targeted in the autumn.

Despite outrage expressed in the local media, Alessandro Buffa, the head of the Piedmont hunters’ association, said that roe deer were regularly culled because they were “a menace to agriculture and viticulture, not to mention motorists”. He said that the killing of female deer would not begin until after the summer because the law forbade the shooting of “lactating females”.

La Stampa, the Turin newspaper, and Italia Uno, one of the three commercial television channels owned by Silvio Berlusconi, the former centre-right Prime Minister, have appealed to Italians to “stop this massacre”. Yesterday both said that they had been inundated with offers to adopt a fawn that would otherwise be shot.

“My husband, Umberto, and I run a rural bed and breakfast with 5,000sq m of woodland and we would love to help by taking in deer,” ran one e-mail from Cristine Garzonio in Val d’Aosta.

“If the reward for killing a deer is €110, I will double that and offer €220 to adopt one, or €440 for two,” wrote Claudio Fasano, an environmental campaigner from Udine.

The campaign has the backing of Vittorio Sgarbi, a former government minister who is now head of culture for Milan city council. “We are talking here about creatures who, because of children’s literature and toys, are almost human,” Signor Sgarbi said. “Incitement to kill them is inconceivable.”

But Signor Buffa said that he was exasperated by the campaign. “The protesters make out we are murderers with innocent blood on our hands. But deer reproduce rapidly,” he said. He added that deer caused thousands of euros of damage and culling them was normal. “Last year 500 deer were shot and no one batted an eyelid,” he said. “I don’t understand this outburst of sentimentality. No one makes this fuss if we kill wild boar.” The babies were not shot, he said, only young deer that were a nuisance.

However, Piero Rapetti, a zoologist, said that he was appealing to the centre-left Government of Romano Prodi to step in. “The Environment Ministry has the power to stop this cull,” Signor Rapetti said.

Carla Zucotti, an animal rights campaigner, said that sterilising female deer was a humane alternative. “How can anyone kill an animal so beautiful?” she asked.

CULLING GROUNDS

Every year trained marksmen using high-powered rifles cull about 20 of the royal deer that live in Richmond Park

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