The culture that is Italy?

It is not just birds, rabbits and wild boar who meet a sticky end in the Italian hunting season.

According to statistics published today, 35 people have also been killed in the past four months, and another 74 injured. Italy's anti-hunting league, the LAC, said all but one were hunters killed accidentally by their shooting companions.

But the 35th victim was a mushroom collector shot dead near Arezzo in Tuscany. Of the injured, 13 were also non-hunters, mostly people out for a walk in the woods or cycling down a country lane.

The annual bloodletting is a result of the unusual freedom allowed to shooting parties under Italian law. They can go on to private property and fire anywhere not within 50m of a road or 150m of a house.

Here is more.