On balance and direction

I am a hunter. My opinion is that taking a game bird (not just any bird) from the wild is pleasurable in many ways and morally acceptable. That is my opinion and it is the opinion of 10 million people living in the European member states, including Malta. It is an opinion sanctioned by the European Union itself that recognises the right to hunt. Others, of course, might disagree, and some do violently.

In spite of hunting restrictions and harsher infringement penalties recently imposed by the Minister for the Environment, attacks by abolitionists and critics against the minister continue unrelentingly. His decisions pleased no one and upset everyone, because he tried to bridge the unbridgeable polarised gap that exists between hunters and anti-hunters. If his criteria were "balance" and "direction", his attempt failed on both counts.

Minister George Pullicino ought to know that hunters are part of the environment, because they act within it, affect it and are affected by it. And, though he may personally be against hunting, he cannot only pay lip service to hunters. Which is precisely what he has been doing all along. Hence, the imbalance.

Thirty years ago, bird protection fundamentalists tried to pull a fast one over Dom Mintoff. But he put them quickly and firmly in their place. He forcefully told them that game birds were for hunters and non-game birds for bird watchers! He warned bird-protectionists to back off where game birds were concerned, but he also legislated for the protection of birds of prey.

In contrast, Mr Pullicino has allowed himself to be driven into a tight corner. With abolitionists dominating the ministry, with the Ornis committee cover blown apart, with an insatiable anti-hunting society continually asking for more, with the bird trappers enraged over his prohibition, with the shooters resentful of his tactics, with the hunters increasingly looking at Labour to champion their cause, and with the EU Commission threatening court action over spring shooting, Mr Pullicino has little to smile about.

As to direction, Mr Pullicino's direction finder points to restricting hunting even further. Again, he misses the point.

Hunters are "restricted" enough already by their own numbers, the island's tiny size, bird migration patterns, weather, smallness of hunting territory, EU directives, increase in bird sanctuaries and other factors.

The idea should not be to "restrict" but to control. Controlling hunting is the direction the minister needs to take. But he cannot do this by having abolitionists dictating the controls. He must take on board the serious hunters, seek their advice on all issues connected with game birds and sustainable hunting, and hold them responsible for their own decisions. Above all, he must resist attempts by abolitionists to "review" and "veto" hunting decisions. The reason is simple: Abolitionists are not interested in regulating hunting, but only in eliminating it!

Hunting is an issue in its own right and should not be confused, as is the case to date, with the entirely separate issue of bird protection. Deciding whether to ban or limit semi-automatic shotguns has to do with regulating a sport. Deciding on who gets a gun licence, on shooting rights, on proof of land ownership, on size of shot permissible, on hunting distances from roads and inhabited areas... all these matters and a myriad others are exclusively hunting issues, to be debated by hunting experts recognised by the ministry. Never by abolitionists. That is why the Ornis committee has failed in every respect: It was thought up by an abolitionist!

The minister hardly needs reminding there is an electoral price too to pay if he does not get it right by election time. Politicians can be for or against hunting. But none can afford to ignore the existence of thousands of people for whom hunting is not just a pastime but a way of life, and who will definitely not allow their rights and aspirations to be sacrificed on the abolitionist altar of fundamentalism.

Anyone who believes that the end of spring hunting heralds the beginning of a peaceful era is grossly mistaken. The minister had better grab the abolitionist bull by the horns because if he does not, somebody else will!

Mr Zammit is president of St Hubertus Shooters.