The competition of mushroom hunters
On a sunny morning, on the mountains of Camerata Nuova, Central Italy, Bella - one of the dogs trained to search for truffles - was rushing among the eucalyptus trees.
Meanwhile, Mr. Renato Tomassetti - owner of Bella - a truffle hunter living in the capital Rome - was cheering when the Bella suddenly flew to a tree and began digging the ground under the misty leaves.
Black gold - Mr. Tomassetti, 80 years old, exclaimed when the idea returned with a mushroom lump that looked like a slashed tennis ball with a fragrant aroma.
He and another group of mushroom hunters followed Bella into the forest in the Simbruini Mountains, Italy. Here, Bella smells a scent from another tree. "Stop! Let go! Let go" - Mr. Tomassetti suddenly shouted.
Young men ran up ahead and pushed the Bella away from the body of a Fox. The Fox's remains show signs of death from strychnine poisoning - a highly toxic colorless crystallization.
Mr. Tomassetti quickly became a thing of the past while other truffle hunters moved around the dead fox.
After that, local police brought the gauge and a frozen bag, cordoned off the location where the report was found as a crime scene.
Truffle mushrooms are a precious spice added to pasta, grated into sauce or soaked in oil to serve the richest diners. Therefore, hunting for truffles once belonged to the upper class.
However, when we began to learn more about it, the downside of the industry emerged, according to the New York Times. To protect areas rich in truffles, mushroom hunters have sought to repel those outside and eliminate other competitors by blasting pickup trucks, fire-breaking cars, and even fighting each other.
In 2018, the dog named Willa became the 6th dog to be killed in 2 years in Brignano Frascata - a small town in Piedmont, Italy - a region famous for its expensive white truffle mushrooms.
Hundreds of dogs are killed every year, said Tomassetti. He is also honorary president of the Lazio Troughle Hunting Association, Italy.
According to him, the association angered local people when it successfully blocked people from other places who intended to explore the hills with a lot of truffle mushrooms.
Most of the disputes are in the Abruzzo region of central Italy, which borders the town of Camerata Nuova.
However, truffle hunters say that the owners of the dogs do not want to reveal the mushroom growing areas they often seek, so disputes rarely occur.
Instead, this area often has poisoning in water wells or fields. Sometimes there are even civil casualties.
targeted dogs
On January 7, truffle hunter Martina Ercoli and her family went mountain climbing in Simbruini with the 1.5-year-old Brando. Brando ate a gifted sausage and died. "The people hunting for truffles have started to poison them" - she quoted the local people.
Daniele Formichetti, head of the forest and dog management unit of the local Carabinieri military police, led the hunt after a suspicious sausage was found and sent to the lab.
Formichetti has a good feeling that the culprit is a truffle hunter who knows how to avoid the domestic dogs that are hunting for the culprit.
His colleague, Ettore Maceroni, theorized that a hunter worked in the area for a few days and then gave up the poison to kill his competitor.
The military police force considered stopping the car on the mountain road to search for gloves and sausages soaked in poison on the vehicles. Both were not very optimistic about catching the perpetrator.
