Hunters plan peaceful protest unless spring hunting dates are out

Hunters will be taking to the streets on Wednesday to protest peacefully outside Parliament unless an amended legal notice announcing the dates for spring hunting was issued by then, the president of the Federation of Hunters and Trappers, Joe Buttigieg, said yesterday.

Addressing a news conference, he appealed to hunters to protest peacefully showing their disapproval seriously.

Although the Ornis committee has proposed that the hunting of quail can be permitted between April 1 and May 10 and of turtle dove between April 10 and May 20, the dates have not yet been approved by the government and were not in line with what hunters had proposed.

The dates would only be officially approved once the legal notice is published.

Mr Buttigieg said hunters had proposed trapping for seven species of songbirds for a month starting from March and hunting at sea for ducks and geese for 15 days between the first and second moons of March. It also proposed two months of hunting and trapping for quails and turtle doves, starting from March 20.

He said the news conference addressed by Environment Minister George Pullicino on Monday was not at all conclusive but the minister insisted that the government had the people's mandate to protect sustainable hunting and trapping. So it was useless for those who gave the government such mandate to continue insisting on eradicating hunting and trapping.

Mr Buttigieg said that although the federation had never been in favour of illegal hunting and trapping and it was even willing to help with enforcement if there were suitable regulations, fines should reflect the crimes committed.

The federation could never accept the proposed fine of Lm6,000, two years' imprisonment and loss of licence for a hunting crime when such fines were not even contemplated in crimes of a much more grievous criminal nature. "We are being treated like criminals," he said.

And, ironically, while the Maltese government was contemplating such fines, another EU country - Italy - was debating the removal of imprisonment from hunting offences. They were also considering lengthening the hunting season to February and that each trapper would be able to keep 410 birds without the need to ring them.

Hunters wanted to know what the position of the Labour Party was because its leader, Alfred Sant, had not been at all clear in his replies to questions recently, Mr Buttigieg said.

Public relations officer Joe Perici Calascione said the federation yesterday filed three libel suits against Malta Today editor Saviour Balzan, Illum editor Kurt Sansone and Wenzu Mintoff. He said the libel suits were about comments made in the two newspapers and on a radio programme in the case of Dr Mintoff.

Mr Perici Calascione said the popular forum on the hunter's website had reopened following a temporary suspension. He complained that although threats by alleged hunters had made the headlines and front pages of newspapers, threats to hunters did not receive the same treatment.

Asked about the possibility that Malta could be fined by the EU because of spring hunting, federation secretary Lino Farrugia said hunting was one of some 33 cases where the EU had initiated infringement procedures against Malta. It was true that there was the possibility that the country could be taken to the European Court of Justice and fined after a long process but this could happen on any of the 33 cases.