Clay pigeon shooting and hunting

In his letter (April 12) Edwin Vella, the Malta Shooting Federation PRO, makes two statements without providing any evidence for their correctness. He says that compact sporting in northern European countries is gradually replacing hunting; and he considers the introduction of this shooting discipline as a "peaceful" way of solving the hunting issue.

"Compact sporting" is the shooting of clay pigeons on a layout that simulates the shooting of game birds. This discipline is practised by both clay pigeon shooters who want to get a taste of simulating shooting at game and also by hunters who consider it as preparatory training for game shooting. I would be interested to know where Mr Vella obtained his information that it is replacing hunting, as I am not aware that any investigative study of this nature has been published.

What Mr Vella seems to be missing is the reason why clay pigeon shooting or compact sporting can never be considered as a suitable replacement. The satisfaction in hunting does not consist in the hitting and killing of birds. It is immaterial whether the hunter does, in fact, shoot any birds at all, since hunting is not a competitive sport, unlike clay pigeon shooting. To a real hunter the breaking of hundreds of clay pigeons at a shooting club are as nothing compared to the thrills of hunting game birds.

If Mr Vella can convince me that the happy time spent in the countryside with my dogs in search of game, and the satisfaction I get from seeing my dogs make a perfect point, flush and retrieve can ever be replaced by shooting clays at a shooting range, I might consider his "peaceful solution". He would also need to think up some good recipe for cooking clay pigeons to make his argument more credible.

But I sympathise with and support Mr Vella and the Malta Shooting Federation in their efforts to overcome the pathetic convolutions of an opportunistic bureaucracy and to have the shooting range on Gozo set up on a permanent basis. Indeed it might become a magnet for some so-called hunters who have no clue of what real hunting is all about and who shoot down birds at random without even bothering to pick them up.