Hunting at heart

In life one is always faced with various situations where one has to thank somebody for what they did or what they are doing, be it privately or publicly.

A heartfelt thank you therefore must go to all the council at FKNK for their tireless efforts and all the voluntary work put in to try and keep what's left of our beloved hobby on its feet. People like Joe Perici Calascione, Lino Farrugia and Joe Buttigieg I'm sure are giving up hours of their precious time to spend it down at the federation's offices racking their brains hard to keep from sinking what has been engrained in the lives of thousands of Maltese hunters and trappers for years.

Were it not for these people, we would have had to use our guns just for clay pigeon shooting many a year ago. They have and still are battling on for the retention of the socio-cultural tradition of spring hunting and for this we are all grateful to them. I must admit it's not easy because our EU big brother and BirdLife are vehemently against this and have been major stumbling blocks in our efforts to try and prove to all and sundry that the harvesting of turtle doves and quails in spring as carried out in the Maltese islands is sustainable to say the least.

Another thank you must surely go to Alfred Zammit, Mark Mifsud Bonnici and Aldo Azzopardi from St Hubert's hunters. They are a wealth of information and are fighting this battle hand in hand with the FKNK's top brass. We can only learn from these individuals. Thank you once again from all those who have the hunting tradition at heart.