ROME — Donald Trump Jr. has angered Italian politicians who accuse his hunting crew of killing a rare duck.
The president's eldest son appeared in a video posted on the website of Field Ethos — an outdoor adventure brand he co-founded — hunting in wetlands bordering Italy's Venice Lagoon. The footage shows Trump wearing camouflage, shooting birds out of the sky and appearing beside a pile of dead birds. Experts identified one of the birds as a ruddy shelduck, a protected species in Europe.
It's not clear from the video, which has since been removed from the site, who in the hunting party allegedly killed a protected bird, but the saga has set off what one Italian newspaper called the "Donald Duck crisis."
Green party politicians in Italy's Veneto region are pressing for an investigation of Trump and his hunting party, saying killing a ruddy shelduck is a crime.
"Yesterday morning, before attending the meeting of the Regional Council in Venice, I filed a complaint with the Forest Police of Mestre Venice regarding the controversial hunting trip of Donald Trump Jr. in the Venice Lagoon protected by the European Union," regional legislator Andrea Zanoni with the Europe Green party said in a Facebook post Wednesday.
Another party member in Italy's lower house has also raised the issue with the country's environment minister, The Associated Press reported.
Donald Trump Jr. did not reply to NPR's request for comment. But his spokesperson, Andy Surabian, told AP that "Don takes following all rules, regulations and conservation on his hunts very seriously and plans on fully cooperating with any investigation."
Hunting is legal but strictly regulated in Italy. Surabian said the group was hunting with permits in a legally permitted area.
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