Cut and paste campaign against Malta

Alexander Falzon (The Hunting Saga, March 20) cuts and pastes an unsigned article against Malta dated June 29, 2006 that can be seen in the website of the British Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (www.rspb.org.uk/international/illegal_hunting/malta.asp).

Inconveniently for the cut and paste campaign, however, one can see that the RSPB complains not only about Malta but also about bird hunting and trapping internationally, including southern Europe. And what does the RSPB say about our European neighbours?

We can start with Greece, being the country of origin of the European Commissioner for the Environment, Stavros Dimas, who comes from the political party now in government in Greece. Greek law does not protect wild birds classed as game, says the RSPB. Bird trapping is still practised in several places, it notes, and the effectiveness of law-enforcement guards is inadequate.

Hunting and trapping in neighbouring Cyprus is extensive. There are more than 45,000 licensed hunters (in a country double the population of Malta) and 3.7 million birds are shot every year (double the figure for Malta). Small birds migrating through Cyprus are trapped for sale nationally as a Cypriot food delicacy.

France comes out as the main hunting and trapping culprit in Europe. With its 1.3 million hunters, it has the most of any EU country. Under French law, 64 bird species can be hunted, more than in any other country of the EU. Shooting and trapping of birds is widespread, says the RSPB, with birds ending up on French tables as delicacies.

In our neighbour Italy, many rare birds are shot, says the RSPB. Italy has derogated from the Birds Directive to allow trappers in some areas to net several birds including quails. In 2002, a new Italian hunting law gave regions the right to grant exceptions to the law so as to prolong the hunting season and allow shooting of protected species. Italian restaurants keep serving protected birds.

Spain has one million hunters, the second highest number in the EU after France, observes the RSPB in its website. Regional governments in Spain permit shooting of some birds in February. Under derogation from the Birds Directive, they also allow hunting of woodpigeons, turtle doves and quails during the breeding season. Trapping of finches takes place in most regions of Spain, notes the RSPB.

Apart from our European neighbours, even Britain comes in for criticism from the RSPB. It says that persecution of birds of prey in Britain continues at a high level, even though these birds have been officially protected for at least 50 years.

Hundreds of the UK's priority species, including scarce farmland birds and red squirrels, are hunted. Penalties for illegal hunting in Britain are lower than Malta's.

What is glaring is that Mr Falzon did not cut and paste a significant part in the RSPB's website article. This consisted of appeals for letters to the authorities. In all cases except Malta's, the RSPB appeals for letters of protest to Birdlife or the Minister for the Environment of the relative country. Only in Malta's case does it appeal for letters of protest to the tourism authorities as well.

I am no hunter or trapper but I feel I have to react to what is evidently a campaign against Malta regarding hunting and trapping - an organised extreme crusade aided and abetted by Maltese eco-fundamentalists that do not give the whole perspective of hunting and trapping in our European partners.

With help from partial and unbalanced journalists, these eco-fundamentalists have managed to make hunting and trapping a front-page issue, which it is not in neighbouring countries. In France, Italy and Spain, for example, barely a mention is made of hunting and trapping.

Moreover, Maltese eco-fundamentalists have been attacking a main pillar of our economy, tourism, throughout their vicious campaign that is extremely unfair given the larger picture of what is happening in the rest of the European Union.