Trying to rectify allegations made by the hunters' representatives, including myself, Andrè Raine of BirdLife Malta (January 30) concentrated on bird statistics.
To the figure of shot protected birds passed on to BLM, Dr Raine insists on additional figures that are unknown but assumed to exist by BLM.
Dr Raine lists three more categories, namely, protected birds shot and stuffed by poachers, birds shot and never found, and those confiscated from hunters and taxidermists by the police and Mepa every year.
He quotes an example from the year 2009 when BirdLife received 95 and the Natural History Museum received 374 shot protected birds confiscated by the police.
This total of 469 birds included birds whose injuries did not stem from shotgun wounds, birds shot abroad and imported without the necessary papers, and birds confiscated from hunters' homes without the required permits. On such evidence BirdLife calls Malta Europe's black spot for bird slaughter.
Apart from demonstrating an unscientific approach, there is no escaping the fact that the total figure of 469 is a drop in the ocean when compared to the thousands, not to say millions, of protected birds that BirdLife claims are "massacred" every year.
One single petition sent to the EU stated that 8,000 birds of prey were shot in 2005. At one time on BLM's website the figure of birds shot on Malta was given as 50,000,000.
Dr Raine claims that we are wrong about the "meagre presence of migratory birds". Questioning why there are so many hunters if there are hardly any birds, it becomes apparent that he has not understood the principal characteristics of Maltese hunting, namely the paucity and unpredictability of game-birds, hence its attraction. After some years in Malta, apparently Dr Raine still cannot appreciate that Maltese hunting only thrives on hope. Unlike the rest of Europe, Maltese hunters never know beforehand what the hunting day will provide.
If, at 47 hunters per square kilometre, Malta tops the European Union list, this is in line with its having, at 1,230 persons per square kilometre, the densest population of the EU.
Other than repeating our own criticism of the carnet-de-chasse system, Dr Raine should have explained why BLM refused to participate in the scientific study by an independent foreign institute, commissioned by the government to establish a more accurate estimate of bird migration figures. An explanation is also due for BLM's refusal to participate in the environment marshals scheme, open also to non-hunters.
Dr Raine remained silent about the more important allegations, perhaps because such matters do not fall under his remit as Conservation Manager. It is then for BirdLife Malta president Joe Mangion and/or director Tolga Temuge to reply to what we wrote about the intentional magnifying of illegalities, the great improvement in enforcement, BLM's intentional intimidation of the Maltese Prime Minister, BLM's hindering of talks between the government and the hunters' representatives, and BLM's vetoing of the hunters' proposals in the Malta Ornis Committee. We wait patiently for BirdLife's explanations.