Birdlife Malta is always claiming that the majority of the Maltese population is against spring hunting, backing its statement by quoting survey results. When it comes to the real thing, however, it always has to rely on foreign support. The recent petition presented in conjunction with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a case in point. Signed by 115,000 RSPB members, the petition portrays the opinion of a mere 0.2 per cent of the UK population and just 23 per cent of RSPB members.

During the press conference, apart from informing us on the local hunting scenario, RSPB representatives could have enlightened us further by explaining some hunting regulations in the UK. For example, they could have explained how the British authorities, without applying any EU derogation and without justifying anything to anyone, can classify certain bird species as pests or vermin, thus allowing their hunting 365 days a year.

Five species of corvids, feral pigeons, collared doves, wood pigeons, herring gulls and black backed gulls are among these species.

The fact that woodpigeons, collared doves and black backed gulls (the latter two are locally protected) are scarce migrants to Malta does not seem to have any effect on their decision-making.

On the other hand, they expect us, as an inferior nation, to stop spring turtle dove and quail shooting because they are on their way to Britain to breed.

Through the same reasoning, a number of mammals are "controlled" by legally approved methods all the year round. In a few words, the regulation allows the shooting of foxes, rabbits, minks, weasels, stouts, grey squirrels and feral cats. Now what about shooting a squirrel or a feral cat?