Towards a sound future for hunting in Malta

In the news item Protected Birds Shot Down In Front Of Birdwatchers - BirdLife (September 19), Birdlife Malta are reported to have "called on the government to double the fines for repeat offenders and suspend the licenses temporarily". In their blind extremism BLM have forgotten that there is already an extremely high penalty for illegal hunting: a €14,000 fine and a two-year prison sentence.

Birdlife Malta use every instance of illegal hunting for publicity and funds. They publicise the shooting of two or three birds of prey with photos of the bloodied birds, thus appealing to people's emotions in order to get at their pockets. They try to give the impression that there is widespread shooting of protected birds, although they know very well that the hunting laws are being observed by the vast majority of the hunters.

BirdLife Malta welcome the policing of the countryside being carried out on the island by foreigners. Indirectly BLM are acknowledging that they have failed to do their work properly and are happy to have these foreigners do it for them.

Besides, the presence of the extremist German abolitionist society CABS in Malta has been interpreted as an indictment of the Maltese government. The Maltese Prime Minister has been made to appear unable to tackle the problem of illegal hunting without the help of these extremists. The Malta police have been reduced to page-boys, with the ALE police being at the beck and call of the CABS members. What a farce! And for what? To catch a few hotheads, mostly untouchables, shooting a few birds of prey passing over Malta, whose shooting year in year out merely demonstrates the powerlessness and/or incompetence of the government and its police force to weed out transgressors.

Some time ago, we presented the Prime Minister with proposals to ensure a respectable future for hunting in Malta. These proposals included the setting up of a Hunting Advisory Unit within the Ministry for the Environment to deal with all issues related to hunting. We also requested the Prime Minister to let us have a secure telephone number for reporting hunting abuses that would guarantee anonymity. We still have not heard from him about our proposals. In the meantime BirdLife Malta and their foreign lackeys keep purposely hotting up the hunting issue. And this is how it will remain as long as the government ignores serious advice and persists in letting these pseudo-ornithologists interfere in hunting matters.