Mr Mark Mifsud Bonnici (The Sunday Times, November 13) appears to have a great confusion in his mind. For example, on October 8 he wrote about me thus: "He is very conversant with the pleasures of hunting as I am sure that the members of his family who were keen law-abiding hunters made him aware of these pleasures". Now in his latest reply, he contradicts himself by stating that I do not know anything about hunting.
I reiterate what I had stated in my letter, that not only am I conversant with hunting in Malta but I also have first-hand experience with hunting in Europe. I can handle a gun better than some hunters who have caused accidents since I shoot trap at Bidnija range (not at five in the morning). After all, hunting is not exactly rocket science. There is only an oral test which lasts five minutes for someone to obtain a hunting licence.
Mr Mifsud Bonnici goes on to state that he has over 40 years' experience in hunting in South Africa, Argentina, England, Scotland and Egypt. I congratulate him on his experience and I hope that he carries on hunting in these countries and perhaps take some of our Maltese hunters with him on an unending trip.
He then mentions Bidnija as a prime hunting territory. Just in case our hunting expert has not realised it, most of Malta is prime hunting territory. There are 1,234 hunters per square huntable kilometre, against 200 to 300 in other European countries.
He next suggests that I use earplugs. Besides being cruel, and a liability to our economy, I must add another adjective to our hunters - selfish. Who else but a selfish person would suggest this? Then he talks about us being tolerant towards hunters and that "unless we are prepared to be tolerant towards others, emigrating to a larger country is the only other option".
Yes, I agree, as hunting is a nuisance and in France and UK there are big uninhibited expanses where hunters do not disturb anybody. I wonder what his reaction would be if I were to shoot under his window at 5 a.m.
Mr Mifsud Bonnici then mentions the Nationalist government's promise that spring hunting was there to stay. I noticed also that other political parties are inclined to give some sort of guarantees. These should not be taken seriously. Malta is now a member of the European Union 'club' and all members including Malta should conform to the club charter, i.e. no spring hunting.
Our government is expecting a heavy fine from the EU to punish our hunters' behaviour. Who will pay this fine? Spring hunting is detrimental to the survival of birds since it is during spring that they will be passing over Malta to breed in Europe. The hunting lobby estimates that 200,000 birds are shot in our islands annually whereas BirdLife's total is two million. No wonder we never see any bird here, except dead flamingoes and shot eagles, while Sicily is full of live egrets, flamingoes and other beautiful birds.
Mr Mifsud Bonnici is gullible enough to believe that the hundreds of letters published in the local press by Maltese and tourists against hunting are all made up. There are other thousands of tourists who also would like to write against hunting in Malta but do not bother to do so, since they have decided to give Malta a wide berth because of our excessive hunting.
The people who write are genuinely interested in Malta and they are trying to shame our government into conforming to EU legislation.
Your correspondent even imagines that local antis "have managed to infiltrate strategic government posts and the media and are using these means to try to eradicate shooting". He has been seeing too many James Bond films. He states that the "one step forward and one step backward taken by the police since the legal 79/06 notice issued last March is being contested by the Hunters Federation and therefore cannot be applied until a final decision is taken by the competent authorities".
I refer him to what Dr Joe Brincat was reported to have stated in Parliament (The Times‚ November 4): "If a law was enacted it bound everyone, and no one except Parliament could suspend it. By interfering in police affairs the government was sending a completely wrong message." If Mr Mifsud Bonnici would like to debate this point with this eminent lawyer, he is free to do so!
He then goes on to compare the harmful lead pellets in our soil with the fumes being emitted by cars. I repeat: both are harmful but whereas Malta can do without hunting (and how!) it cannot do without cars. The greatest harm concerning emission is being done by the second-hand Japanese cars which are being imported. The new cars which will arrive in the near future with Euro 5 engines will have practically no harmful emission at all, whereas the pellets in our soil keep increasing year after year.
Then Mr Mifsud Bonnici states that it was hard to comprehend the logic in my argument that I regard hunting as a nuisance rather than a sport and that I sympathise with the few law-abiding hunters. My logic is very simple. I sympathise (pity) with Saddam Hussein being condemned to hang. It is not a nice sensation for him. Yet I condemn him for his atrocities. I hope that now Mr Mifsud Bonnici understands my logic. Furthermore a sport is an activity in which both sides play on a level playing field and take part voluntarily. This is not the case with hunting. Therefore call hunting by any other name but "sport".
I appeal to the hunting community to accept the inevitable regarding spring hunting, They should find other forms of entertainment to replace their hunting. Perhaps they could find a job to help our economy instead of trudging over farmers' vegetables waiting for the birds to arrive from their long trip to give them their reward for their effort and shoot them down.
Personally, even at my pensionable age, I keep myself occupied by working every day for financial gain for myself and for my companies. It is ironic that approximately a third of my income is taxed and goes to the government which then passes some of it to those hunters who are either pensioners or who register as unemployed and who spend the week waking up half of Malta and shooting protected birds.
Finally, I shall reply to any more letters from Mr Mifsud Bonnici. I have stated all that I had to say. And I hope that he has too.