Holy war on hunting

I would like to reply to the articles regarding hunting and trapping in Malta which are frequently published in The Times and in particular I refer to the letter titled Hunting In Malta (April 11).

These letters sound more like messages from brainwashed people trying to brainwash other people than anything else! They are filled with generalisation because no one believes that all hunters are trigger-happy and that they all shoot at anything that passes by within their shooting range. I will admit that there are a few who still abuse and who are given the most coverage but nothing is said of the law-abiding majority.

If there are 100 "hunters" who are abusing one cannot assume that the other 11,900 are doing the same. Abuses happen everywhere - at work, in religion, in sport, when driving - but nobody says that we should ban driving just because there a few drivers who abuse.

Stefan Azzopardi said the cherry on the cake was when the law courts fined a hunter only Lm250 for killing a short-toed eagle. Well, I was listening to the news and I heard that the courts fined a man Lm1,000 because due to his negligence he killed a tourist and maimed her friend in a car accident. With this in mind, isn't Lm250 a fair fine?

I don't think it is shameful at all. I believe there are more shameful things going on which are damaging Malta's reputation, such as intentionally exaggerating an issue just because a group of people have decided to conduct a holy war against hunters and trappers.

I am in favour of having more enforcement and even of having, if necessary, special wardens placed near hunting and trapping sites to make sure the law is enforced. I am also happy that a delegation of environment officials from the European Commission visited Malta to gain a first-hand impression of the situation.

However, I am a bit perplexed because they should have been brought to Malta even when the trapping season was open. Thus we could have had a more detailed picture of the whole issue and not from the hunting side only.