Anthony Caruana's letter Punishing All To Get At The Few (September 30) deserves an answer since the deceit behind the exaggerating of illegal hunting statistics is unknown to the government and most hunters. His comparison to football "criminal behaviour" cannot be used as an example because football hooliganism, though rampant, unlike illegal hunting in Malta is not being manipulated and used as an excuse to ban football.
As he did, I too endorse Publio Danny Rosso's views. However, I tend to disagree that the problem of illegal hunting cannot be controlled. Considering that hunting is practised in an area of 118 square kilometres, control is more than possible. But does the government have the will to control?
Hunters might not be in a position to effectively control all abuse but they have suggested ways of doing it. Among other sensible proposals to safeguard the future of hunting, Kaċċaturi San Ubertu put forward a proposal whereby the monies collected from hunting and trapping licences go towards the setting up of an environment warden system.
Another proposal is that the hunting area in Malta be split up into zones, each with its own warden unit. The government has not only ignored these proposals but did not even have the decency to acknowledge them.
The government can, to say the least, save face. On BirdLife's insistence, the government chose to implement a two-week afternoon hunting ban in September for the past two seasons. While denying the hunters their right to hunt, this ban proved utterly useless as the number of poachers caught was insignificant.
It however gave our local and foreign "ornithologists" a chance to roam our countryside unhindered.
Given police assistance and using all the sophisticated equipment normally used for bird watching, what was intended as a chance to apprehend the poacher in fact resulted in a series of alleged "massacres" that were not even backed by concrete proof.
These alleged massacres and a few other illegalities were used by "ornithologists", who are obviously anti-hunting, to stir up public opinion, through the media, to a problem that is, in all truth, well below the alleged. If one had to consider the 16,000 licensed hunters and the number of reported illegalities my point is made perfectly clear.
The reaction was, judging by most people's online comments on The Times, to a call for a permanent hunting ban on Malta.
These foreign and Maltese anti-hunters are led by David Conlin. A member of CABS, a life member of BirdLife Malta and the RSPB, Mr Conlin, who coordinates the spring and raptor camps in Malta, is circulating a petition addressed to EU Commissioner Stavros Dimas to ban hunting in Malta. Most Maltese calling for this ban have already signed it as have another 1,000 foreigners.
The intended amplifying of figures related to hunting illegalities (see www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?p=1280891) is aimed to gain support for this ban from the gullible Maltese public and from foreigners who do not even know Malta existed.
The government, rather than implementing our proposals, seems to prefer the presence of foreign anti-hunting activists, posing as birdwatchers, whose interest is not controlling this abuse but of amplifying it to their benefit.
After the government's spring hunting debacle, which can only be blamed upon the government's trust in an anti-hunter as its EU hunting negotiator, the PN's guarantee of the continuance of hunting in spring has resulted in its suspension. Would it surprise anyone if autumn shooting were to follow the same fate?
The anti-hunter's intention is to see Malta become a hunting-free zone. The government's request to investigate their reports clearly shows that their credibility is being questioned. The government was deceived into guaranteeing spring hunting to the hunter by an anti-hunter. Hopefully, it will not allow itself to fall into the same trap again by blindly believing what they state.
Allowing the amplified illegalities, which these anti-hunters unquestionably report in the local and international media, to escalate, as they have, into mass anti-hunting hysteria is misleading people into supporting a hunting ban.
Apart from investigating these exaggerated claims the government should take on proposals directed at curbing the illegal hunting problem and, most importantly, aimed at clearing the misconception that the government is incapable of controlling abuse.