Hunters, trappers followed instructions to vote Labour

Hunters and trappers were advised to vote for six Labour candidates in June's EP election and 94 per cent of those who cast their vote complied, according to the hunters' federation (FKNK).

FKNK officials yesterday argued that their lobby group was stronger than that of "so-called environmentalists" and had already had a determining effect on the EP election.

"If the votes of the environmentalists had any effect, people like Harry Vassallo and Arnold Cassola would have long been elected to Parliament," public relations officer Joe Perici Calascione told a press conference.

According to the survey results published yesterday, 16 per cent of hunters and trappers invalidated their vote or did not vote and 94 per cent of those who voted said they chose one or more of the six candidates backed by the federation.

The hunters endorsed John Attard Montalto, Sharon Ellul Bonici, Louis Grech, Edward Scicluna, Marlene Mizzi and Joseph Cuschieri, shunning everyone else including Nationalist Party candidate Alex Perici Calascione who also happens to be Mr Perici Calascione's brother and one of the federation's legal advisers.

He was not part of the chosen six because he had warned the federation he would not "get into the hunting issue" because of a clear conflict of interest.

When asked which party they voted for, 68 per cent of respondents said Labour, five per cent said they voted for the PN and the rest that they voted for an individual, engaged in cross-voting or voted for one of the smaller parties. Interestingly, 0.38 per cent voted for Alternattiva Demokratika.

The six candidates garnered 94 per cent of the hunters' and trappers' first preferences, with the largest share (65 per cent) going to Dr Attard Montalto who got the best vote.

A minute of silence was observed during the press conference to commemorate four hunters who reportedly committed suicide last April after spring hunting was disallowed. "We did not have to come to this. People should not have had to lose their lives because they were deprived of an integral part of their daily lives... Many are now on anti-depressants and suffering from different psychological disorders," Mr Perici Calascione said.

The limitations that for the past couple of years were imposed on hunters and trappers were a "collective punishment" for illegal poaching, he added.

The federation's officials did not refer to an incident last week when some 200 protected birds were found killed and buried under stones in Miżieb. They only said a meeting would be held with its members who frequented the area.

When pressed to comment on the matter, FKNK secretary Lino Farrugia said there was no proof that what happened was the work of hunters because hundreds of people frequented the site over the weekend. He said there were no further comments to be made as investigations continued but stressed that FKNK would tolerate no illegalities among its members.

He said that so far fewer than 20 of its 12,000 members had been chucked out of the federation for illegalities, arguing that it was useless for FKNK to expel members because they could easily join another hunting organisation and be allowed to hunt anyway.

"But we do not make the laws. We have tried putting a lot of pressure to change this system (in such a way that if FKNK expels a member on grounds of illegal hunting, he cannot join another organisation)," he said.

Meanwhile, BirdLife Malta said a number of xenophobic comments had been posted on the FKNK's online discussion forum where the Miżieb "bird cemetery" was being compared to Nazi concentration camps.

One comment questioned how the German members of the international raptor camp (CABS) being hosted by BirdLife were not ashamed to call the scene at Miżieb a "mass grave".

cperegin@timesofmalta.com