Who are the extremists?

It is very convenient of Alfred E. Zammit (June 8) to sidetrack the issue and mention violence from a minority of environmentalists and animal rights activists abroad. Perhaps Mr Zammit should be reminded that the topic being discussed is hunting in Malta, and since he brought it up, whether Tolga Temuge of BirdLife Malta is violent or not. If Mr Zammit would like to give any evidence of Mr Temuge being violent, or of possessing a secret weapon, he should perhaps give that evidence, or better still, give the information to the police. If on the other hand, he has no such evidence, he would do himself more credit by simply shutting up.

But since Mr Zammit mentions violent activists abroad, perhaps he should be reminded that Christian fundamentalists in the US are known to bomb abortion clinics, and murder abortion doctors. Does that make all Christians terrorists? I don't think so. So his mention of animal rights extremists (yes, animal rights activists can be extremists - anyone can be an extremist) who put lives in danger is irrelevant. I am not an extremist, and I do not believe killing people or putting human or non-human life in danger for any cause is justified. On the other hand, it is an undisputable fact that hunters, by definition, intentionally put non-human animal lives in danger, and intentionally kill birds. It is also a well-know fact that the violent fringe of the hunting community in Malta (which I do acknowledge is a minority) is prepared to go to extremes for their "cause". Ask the journalists who were beaten up at the hunters' last meeting. This should put things into perspective.

Therefore, what this means is that in Malta, environmentalists and animal rights activists are non-violent, while all hunters are violent towards non-human animals (birds) and a minority of hunters are even violent towards humans. As for "verbal violence", whatever that means, I will leave it to Mr Zammit to give examples (with quotes) on when animal rights activists in Malta have been verbally violent. I suppose painting graffitti on archaeological sites would qualify as "verbal violence", but I think Mr Zammit knows that no anti-hunting activist would paint pro-hunting graffitti anywhere.