Friday, 25th April 2008
Court bans spring hunting for this year
The European Court of Justice has issued interim measures banning spring hunting in Malta this year.
Following weeks that have kept pro- and anti-hunting lobbies on tenterhooks, information started trickling in yesterday evening that the court had come to a decision.
BirdLife Malta issued a statement welcoming the outcome, as government officials both locally and in Brussels were still not in a position to confirm the news, apparently still uninformed by the court.
Later in the evening, the Attorney General - who has been defending the government's case with a team of lawyers that included a Belgian specialist in EU environmental legislation - received the 11-page sentence. An official statement by the government confirmed the ban.
The court had been deliberating on the interim measure since April 2, when the last submissions by lawyers for the government and the European Commission were made behind closed doors.
Since accession to the EU in 2004, the government has permitted hunting for turtle dove and quail in spring on the basis of a derogation from the Birds Directive which it claims Malta has the right to avail itself of, on the basis of the EU accession deal.
The Commission, however, has disputed the practice, arguing that the Maltese case would fall within the scope of the derogation allowing hunting in spring only if it is proven that no other satisfactory solution exists.
Pointing to autumn as such a compensatory season, the Commission initiated infringement proceedings but Malta dug its heels in. This meant the Commission has had to resort to the court, asking it to declare Malta to be in breach of the directive.
Hearings for a final decision on the future of spring hunting have not yet started and until then the court has issued what is known as interim measures. BirdLife applauded the decision yesterday, insisting that hunting during the sensitive breeding and spring migration period runs against the Birds Directive and is outlawed in all member states.
BirdLife President Joseph Mangion said: "The overwhelming majority of the Maltese are against spring hunting and they want to see the government protect our common European natural heritage.
"It is now time for law enforcement against illegal bird shooting and trapping to be stepped up so that this ban will be effective."
The Hunters' Federation, which was unaware of the decision, did not have a reaction to make to the sentence last night.
The group's PRO Joe Perici Calascione said when contacted: "All we know so far is what we've been seeing in the media. It's useless for us to make emotional comments even though this is obviously a devastating blow for us which, yet again, indicates the organised injustice being perpetrated in our regard... but I think it's better if we wait till we've read the sentence."
While accusing the EU of pandering to the anti-hunting lobby, the FKNK has been placing the responsibility for the whole spring hunting debacle on the government, underscoring a promise it had been given in writing prior to accession to the EU by then Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami, that spring hunting for turtle dove and quail would not be affected by membership.
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Comments
I would be more than happy tp meet you and furnish you with a copy
how can anyone distort matters with such a statement!
You, and any other hunters from Malta, will be most welcome to come and hunt in the UK as long as you abide by the laws.
However you will not be welcome to uproot trees, kill birds in nature reserves, blast road signs, deface national monuments, intimidate ramblers or birdwatchers, fire your weapons close to public places and dwellings, shoot birds of prey and other protected species, and above all not shoot turtle doves which are on the Red List of endangered species in this country.
There are numerous game birds and wildfowl, wood pigeons, members of the crow family (which are regarded as pests) to be hunted legitimately. You will of course have to have some knowledge of wildlife and bird recognition if you are not to fall foul of the law. Not so long ago a farmer was fined £13,500 for killing red kites. Get the books out before you catch the plane!
Pheasants are numerous. They are not native to this country and do not migrate so shooting them does not affect any neighbouring country’s bird population. Pheasants were introduced here from the Far East solely for hunting and are raised by gamekeepers on large estates. Dr David Bellamy made a documentary film showing how pheasant shooting actually benefited the countryside. The creation of woods and copses on large estates and elsewhere to provide an ideal home for the pheasants also created an environment for all other forms of wildlife which were not hunted.
Stick to the law and you’ll be fine…….not fined!
I have no doubt that most hunters are decent family men (why the word family?), but the law-abiding core of hunters should have done much more to convince their association that the minority of completely lawless individuals who blasted anything in sight, on land and at sea, in the middle of public roads and near houses, were to be controlled...this outcome is as much FNKK's fault as anyone's. The bad publicity and attention Malta got from the EU was directly related to this, and unfortunately all hunters got the short end of the stick now.
Your suggestion that hunters enjoy their hobbies without disturbing anyone is also not true. People out for a walk to enjoy the countryside and the wild birds and flowers are indeed disturbed when shots ring over their head or lead pellets rain down on them from the sky.
A reputable Law Firm backed by a very reputable Belgian lawyer, highly respected in the EU's hunting federations, together with Malta's own Attorney General have worked non-stop in collaboration with the FKNK to justify Malta's rights in this issue.
FKNK's leaders have over these last 25 years addressed innumerable local and EU fora, always wisely and sometimes ad hoc or at the eleventh hour, mainly due to the innumerable and frequent 'cloak and dagger' tactics used by the extremist greens.
Case in point, the application of this YEAR's Interim Measures by the ECJ (spring Turtledove and Quail hunting 2008) were unethically and 'in very strange' circumstances, deliverd first-hand by BirdLife Malta! Now if this doesn't surprise you, dear P.Sultana....well I wonder!
By the way, I would be very glad if you could forward your expertise in communication skills to our offices, I am always happy to learn from experts.
Directing and producing an hour long TV programme, under such dire conditions, my colleagues and I need all the help we can get!
regards
Joseph Lia
Media and Trapping Issues
FKNK
Certainly it's a wonderful news for you, and the rest of UK, as we already started to receive invitations to visit UK for hunting trips at a higher cost, but of course for a much higher bag compared to our traditional one. Those in favor of abolishing our hunting from Malta, changed my socio cultural tradition pastime, to a business hunting trips, hunting will remain, whether it takes place locally or abroad.
I have lived in the country all my life and as a child enjoyed seeing turtle doves arriving from their winter in Africa and nest-building at the beginning of summer.
Now I never see turtle doves. They are almost extinct in my part of England. Their numbers in England overall have dropped by 82 per cent in recent years.
Let's hope that this ban on spring hunting is not just a temporary measure.
media by the leaders of the Maltese hunters and trappers, it surprises
me that they did their own lobbying. I cannot help the feeling that
the loss of their spring hunting and trapping rights is at least
partly attributable to their failure to appoint professionals to
present their case in an clear and eloquent manner. A competent PR or
law firm could have made all the difference.
Whose paying the legal fees? We should not have let this issue go to the European Courts. The Nationalist Governement knew all along and they fooled the hunters into believing that it can work out after all. You cannot join a club and then decide to use the rules you like and disrecard the rest. It does'nt work like that. Governement should immediately withdraw its case and stop squandering the tax payers' money.