NGOs condemn incidents

The environmental NGOs Nature Trust (Malta) and International Animal Rescue have condemned the violent incidents aimed at the police and the media during the hunters' protest on Wednesday.

"Such actions only demonstrate that certain groups are not lobbying for their rights in a democratic society but simply acting as bullies," the organisations said.

The NGOs said the issue was not the elimination of hunting but rather the control of illegal hunting activities practised by some hunters locally.

Therefore, if the hunting associations genuinely wanted to lobby for their pastime, they should start by issuing a clear-cut condemnation of illegal hunting and not try to justify such illegal actions, they said.

"It is therefore important that illegal hunting is controlled to the maximum by deterrent fines and strengthening of law enforcement resources."

The NGOs said they therefore fully supported the new penalties being introduced by the Ministry for Rural Affairs and Environment. It was now essential that the police Administrative Law Enforcement section was beefed up to the maximum possible and that justice was upheld when such cases came before the courts.