A local politician has said she reported Donald Trump Jr., the eldest son of President Donald Trump, to Italian police and to the Italian parliament as she accused him of allegedly killing a protected duck in the country that is illegal to hunt during a December trip.
Donald Trump Jr. arriving in Nuuk, Greenland on Jan. 7, 2025.
Andrea Zanoni, a politician in Italy, reportedly contacted authorities to report Trump Jr. after seeing a video produced by his lifestyle publication Field Ethos that showed him talking about the number of ducks he'd shot on the trip, including patting the body of an orange-colored bird and called it a "rather uncommon duck for the area."
Several people, including Zanoni and the president of the local Association of Ornithologists, told the Times of London the bird in the video is a female ruddy shelduck, or casarca as the bird is known in Italy, a species protected both by a European Union directive and Italian law.
Massimo Buconi, the president of the Italian Hunting Federation, told The Guardian that the bird in question does look like a ruddy shelduck and, if it is, hunting it is illegal.
In the video, Trump Jr. can be seen shooting ducks from a foxhole in a lagoon that Zanoni said appears to have been filmed in a special conservation area of the Pierimpie’ valley near Venice.
Andy Surabian, a spokesperson for Trump Jr., suggested in a statement to the Associated Press it was possible someone else in the hunting group killed the duck, or that the duck was killed by another group and retrieved by the wrong hunting dog, while adding “Don takes following all rules, regulations and conservation on his hunts very seriously and plans on fully cooperating with any investigation.”
Trump Jr. and Field Ethos did not respond to Forbes request for comment Tuesday.
Trump Jr. appeared to be on a personal vacation in Italy when the hunt took place.
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A ruddy shelduck is seen flying during an autumn day.
“It is unacceptable that protected species are being killed in the Venice lagoon, which is a protected area,” Monica Sambo, a local politician in Venice, told The Times. “If the involvement of Trump Jr is confirmed, we hope he will be prosecuted like any other citizen.”
Trump Jr. has been criticized for his hunting practices in the past. In 2011, a photo circulated showing Trump Jr. holding a knife and an elephant's severed tail while on an African safari that sparked a media circus. More photos were published of Trump Jr. and his brother, Eric, posing with the dead elephant, as well as a leopard, crocodile, Cape buffalo and more in Zimbabwe, which ran alongside a TMZ photo caption calling the pair "pitiful bloodthirsty morons.” The brothers released a statement calling themselves “avid outdoorsmen” who “were brought up hunting and fishing with our grandfather who taught us that nothing should ever be taken for granted or wasted.” They said they had always hunted in accordance with local laws and regulations and said all meat was donated to local villagers “who were incredibly grateful.” In 2019, Trump was again criticized for killing a rare argali sheep while on a trip to Mongolia. Trophy hunting is a hot-button issue in the country and the "right to kill" such a sheep "is controlled by an opaque permitting system that experts say is mostly based on money, connections and politics," ProPublica reported. After killing the animal, Trump Jr., whose father Donald Trump was president at the time, met privately with the country’s president and was granted a retroactive permit. .
At the time of the Zimbabwe controversy, Trump said he didn’t share his sons’ passion: “My sons love hunting. They're hunters and they've become good at it. I am not a believer in hunting and I'm surprised they like it,” he told TMZ. “I know that anything they did was 100 percent okay in terms of the hunting community.”
Donald Trump Jr accused of killing protected bird in Venice lagoon (The Guardian)
Donald Trump Jr accused of killing rare duck on Italy trip (Times of London)
Italian politicians seek action against Trump Jr. hunting party for allegedly killing protected duck (Associated Press)