I agree with most of the contents of Mr Mark Mifsud Bonnici's well-written letter (The Sunday Times, October 8) which commented on my column "A Greener Shade of Green".

It is true that I am conversant with the sport of hunting. My brother, Major Joe Mizzi, was a keen hunter in Malta. I also used to accompany one of my girlfriends in her hunting trips for pheasant and wild boar in Alsace and in the Lyon region in France.

Therefore I have an international and local knowledge of the subject. I do not like writing about a subject about which I know very little. In France, hunting is taken very seriously and hunters are allowed to carry a shotgun only after they study a voluminous book and pass an exam.

On several occasions in my articles I had suggested that exams should be held for hunters similar to those which are being held by MCAST for mariners.

Nevertheless in Malta good advice seems to go the way of the "seed and the birds" parable. The authorities read the advice and then they do nothing about it.

Often sport is a diversion which fortifies the body of the sportsman without causing a nuisance to others. Here in Malta, unlike in other parts of Europe, we do not have huge fields, and wherever the hunter shoots at 5 a.m. he is bound to wake up people, including tourists. Consequently I regard hunting as a nuisance rather than a sport.

Judging by the amount of letters in the press written by our visitors, indiscriminate hunting is one of the causes of a drop in our tourist figures. Therefore hunting is also harming our economy.

However, this vice would be more palatable for everybody were it not for those idiots who are breaking the law and shooting down every protected bird.

I read somewhere that hunters were blaming the Nationalist Party for breaking promises which were made before the last election. I believe that these should blame their leaders, who did not advise them well, and not the politicians.

The hunting lobby should have known that the EU is like a club. Once one joins, one is subject to obeying all the rules. Now the European laws do not allow hunting in spring, so how can the hunters expect to continue having a derogation for spring hunting in Malta?

I am amazed by the 'one step forwards one step backwards' taken by the authorities in the recent bookings by the police of hunters who have broken the law.

These steps are useful when dancing the cha cha, but are hardly the serious steps to be taken in curbing crime in a supposedly serious nation within the EU. Hunters should be made to realise that the days of bullying, threatening and blackmailing are over.

The Maltese syndrome of non-enforceability in general is a cancer which is ruining our islands, and giving us a bad name with our European partners. I am expecting a huge fine from the EU for Maltese hunters' behaviour.

Regarding the correspondent's paragraph comparing the harm being caused to our health by the hunters' pellets with that caused by car fumes, I believe that this is rather far-fetched since Malta could easily do without hunting (and how!) but would find it difficult to eliminate cars completely from our roads. These machines unfortunately have become a necessity.

On the other hand, I agree with Mr Mifsud Bonnici that the fumes of cars are more harmful than the pellets, particularly now that ADT after a fine start to curb car emissions, seem to encounter some problems. Personally I send five SMSes a day to ADT on 5061-1899 but apparently some car testers who left the department have not been replaced. I hope that Minister Censu Galea will finally decide to employ more people there.

Furthermore new cars which are all imported with EURO 4 engines are the least polluters of our atmosphere. The main problem is being caused by the imported four-year-old Japanese second-hand cars. Some of them are already "misjura" (past their prime).

Yes, in spite of my articles which are not exactly complimentary to hunting, I sympathise with those few law-abiding hunters like Mr Mifsud Bonnici, but (like the advent of the vicissitudes of old age) all of us should accept reality. This spring "pastime" has truly passed its time.

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