Of hunters and hunting dogs

The hunting fraternity -perhaps frustrated because their 'petition' has remained somewhat lacking in muscle - have been quite vociferous of late. They have tried every tear-jerker imaginable in their bid to safeguard their killing season in spring: from tradition to age-old custom; a relaxing hobby to dogs salivating for the hunt.

Then comes a pious letter from Mark Mifsud Bonnici, secretary of Kaċċaturi San Ubertu. (The Sunday Times, March 30).

Not coming up trumps with the 'dogs' argument (on this later on), he got the harp-strings going with such pharisaic utterances such as "hunting has now evolved into a regulated form of relaxation and recreation" (regulated? by whom? Certainly not by his federation!). He went on to declare that hunting "provides the hunter with a source of healthy food". If they are after healthy food, why not shoot wild rabbits and game, instead of swans, hawks, kestrels and other protected birds, which end up stuffed on display and not on a dinner plate.

Then he comes up with the understatement of the year - "until recently, hunting regulations were not observed". Those of us who live in the Mellieha area know full well that hunting regulations are still violated, as we have seen hunting taking place throughout March, when the season was still closed. Renegade hunters have never been reined in by their federation or by those who regard themselves as 'responsible hunters'. As neither they nor a spineless government have had the gumption to stamp out illegal hunting, we are now relying on the EU to kill spring hunting as dead as those beautiful birds that have the temerity to fly over our islands.

We then have Fabian Borg, PR and education (?) committee of the Hunters' Federation and Ray Zammit, of San Pawl tat-Tarġa, both of whom 'educated' us about the various types of 'hunting' dogs, but in the main referring to the 'retriever', which is trained to follow, chase, trail, track and retrieve 'game birds'. Both men are in agreement that they are not 'hunting' dogs, but then neither is the Maltese tal-Kaċċa for it does not chase and kill its prey (such as the hunting dogs in Britain which hunt foxes, deer, rabbits, etc.)

The Maltese dog is but a mere 'retriever', like the Pointer, Labrador, Spaniel, etc). They are quite happy retrieving objects: I should know, I had two retrievers in England, and they never pined after birds during the hunting seasons but thoroughly enjoyed 'fetching' sticks and balls in the park.

Both correspondents also state the Maltese tal-Kacca have had "training expounded on them with patience and love". So it is not its in-bred instincts that lead it to be a hunting dog, but man's killing instincts that train it to fetch whatever his gun has killed, be it game or protected bird.