Sunday, 2nd November 2008 - 12:20CET

School wants illegal hunting to stop

Video provided by Birdlife

St Edward’s College staff and students are calling for a stop to illegal hunting right outside the school grounds.

Staff said there was continuous shooting around the school walls and within the 200-metre no-hunting zone and recently a Marsh Harrier fell to its death on the college football pitch.

The bird was taken to Birdlife for assistance. (Read full story in The Sunday Times)

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Article © Allied Newspapers Ltd., printed on Sunday, November 22, 2009. This article is for personal use only, and should not be distributed.

Comments

Andrew Cachia (on 4/11/08)

I am currently in my last year at st edwards college, its not the first time that students including myself were hit by lead pellets returning to the ground, it is a disgrace that due to these illegal hunters we must be exposed to the potential danger of these pellets landing on us not to mention the danger of getting hit in the eye. It is also not uncommon for lessons to consist of momentary disruptions due to the repetitive shooting. I was on the site when the bird, blood soaked with two broken legs was removed from the pitches and taken to birdlife malta. In my opinion the behavior of these hunters is shameful and they deserve to be punished.

MARK MIFSUD BONNICI (on 3/11/08)

APART FROM DR. RAINE HANDLING A PROTECTED BIRD. CAN ANYONE PLEASE TELL ME WHAT'S ILLEGAL ABOUT THIS VIDEO. THIS VIDEO ONLY SHOWS PEOPLE HUNTING. IS THERE ANYTHING ILLEGAL WITH WHAT THEY ARE DOING?

SINCE IT IS BEING ALLEGED THAT THIS AREA IS NOTORIOUS FOR ILLEGAL HUNTING BIRD LIFE SHOULD TAKE THIS OPPORTUNITY AND MONITOR THE AREA AND VIDEO ANYONE BREAKING THE LAW.

THE LAW STIPULATES A 200METER BUFFER ZONE. IF THIS IS NOT BEING OBSERVED OR IF PROTECTED BIRDS ARE BEING SHOT AT, BIRD LIFE SHOULD NOT MISS SUCH A GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY TO PROVE THAT THESE ALLEGATIONS ARE NOT JUST WORDS.

I ALSO SINCERELY HOPE THAT IF ANYONE IS CAUGHT BREAKING THE LAW, HE WILL GET WHAT HE DESERVES.

INDEED I APPROVE OF THE SCHOOL WANTING ILLEGAL HUNTING TO STOP. IN FACT ALL LAW ABIDING HUNTERS WISH FOR THE SAME.

T Mifsud (on 3/11/08)

Anthony Formosa. What is the range of that shotgun when fired close to horizontal clearly seen in the video? Is it more than 100m? How far is that place from the school?

British Police caught an abuser from a scrambled still image and hunted him down around the world. Can our Police arrign ALL those hunters and confiscate their weapons and licence after investigating this broadcast clear video? They are in Malta and are from that area. Also FKNK would be readily available to help and identify them as it claims it is against illegal hunting.

Arrign them, harsh action is needed!

Alex Ellul (on 2/11/08)

@Alex Casha: Drastic comments? What drastic comments? Just asking the hunters to move out of school vicinity? We have just experienced the case of a teacher injured in her eye by a toddler student. When shhall we hear of a teacher or student blinded by lead shot? Even the explosions from shotguns are highly distracting to learning. For this reason alone, hunters should be kept one kilometer away from all school grounds let alone the risk of injury from lead shot and water contamination by lead seeping into water reservoirs now highly utilised for sanitary and other uses.
All hunters please just get off our school backs. Bet most of you played truant when you were supposedly learning. So you may just as well keep far away of the schools even now for our kids' and teachers' sakes. MUT where are you on this?

Alex Casha (on 2/11/08)

if i were you people i would stop writing drastic comments about hunting.now its an old story and theres no need to continue.if theres illegal hunting there are the police who will take care of it,besides illegal things are happening everywhere in this world why hunting only???most of the comments are exaggerated,people are wiser than you think,and on the other hand most of the countryside is owned by hunters and trappers do you think that you will enjoy someday their land with this attitude!!!! if their hobby will be exterminated their private land still remain private,so we need each other in a thing or another.there are places for hunting and there are places for bird watchers thats all,there are more important things to comment about

Anthony Formosa (on 2/11/08)

I don't see any wrong doings in this video, unless they are less than 200 meters from the school, I was expecting more complains about the illegal dumping on the site than the shooting.

can anyone orginize to clean the area before it will turn into more apartments and then you start to complain from dust and construction noise.

Angelica Bossert (on 2/11/08)

Not to mention the real danger from lead poisoning......

Aidan Zammit Lupi (on 2/11/08)

Shotgun pellets fell all the time when I was a kid at De La Salle College - we used to pick them up as a game. There was bird shooting throughout the fields around the school and our lessons were often disturbed by the banging.

I guess little has changed in thirty years...

The behaviour of these hunters is disgraceful.

Noel Enriquez (on 2/11/08)

I remember the daily shower of lead pellets on the school's football pitches during our break times, and not to mention the pellets littering the grounds,.. they're everywhere you look on the ground in the pitches. Hunting should be banned in the vicinity of schools at least with a distance of 200 metres- like they do on other sensitive hotspots like the airport etc. Why should children be allowed to be showered with shotgun pellets? What if they were to cause an injury by falling in an eye? Who will be responsible?

Michael Vella (on 2/11/08)

I remember when i was a student at St. Edwards, i would be on the play ground or football pitches and i would be hit by little pellets falling down from the sky, over the bastions regularly. In fact the ground was, and probably still is, littered with these little pellets. I thought that by now, 10 years after leaving college, this stupid practice around the school's grounds would have stopped.

n. buttigieg (on 2/11/08)

the bird killing criminals in the video are quite recognisable and I'm sure there are quite a few' honest' hunters who know them. Why are the police so reluctant to pick them off the streets and give them what's coming to them? These killers are shaming us all over the world besides the slaughter they are causing. all law abiding citizens are feeling robbed of their rights while these barbarian cowboys have their warped idea of fun.

Keith Borg-Micallef (on 2/11/08)

Doubtlessly, I utterly concur with the St. Edward’s College. These whackos of hunters must be banned once and for all from practising this macabre “hobby” of theirs. And, if banned but still do it, then very, but very harsh punishment must be given. It is simply shameful, pitiable and disgraceful of those people backing these’s hunters’ cause!

Hunting next to a school, then, is purely more pathetic and callous of them! Being it illegal, these people should be turned in, but wait, this is Malta, and these bird-killers think it is a God’s given right to hunt.

School wants illegal hunting to stop

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