Rabbit hunting poses no threat to breeding birds

The arrogance of BirdLife Malta (BLM) knows no bounds. Not content with stirring a veritable hornets' nest over Malta's spring-hunting, BLM's Bermudan conservation-manager now demands that Malta's Prime Minister shorten the rabbit-hunting season "to reduce the possibility that poachers would target rare breeding birds" (May 7).

We challenge Andrè Raine to name the species of the "rare breeding birds" he is referring to and to state the frequency of such birds breeding here. There is, as recorded fact, not one single rare bird that breeds on Malta. Occasionally a pair of birds that breed in their millions on the European continent decides to breed locally. It is indeed a rarity to see a pair of common stilts, but not common to Malta, breed locally. But that can never justify an unreasonable demand to further restrict legal hunting.

Rabbit hunting never did, and does not, pose a threat to breeding birds in Malta. A licence to hunt rabbits is granted to an individual who can prove ownership of land or tenancy.

The licence covers shooting of rabbits exclusively on the land in question. It is issued as a form of pest control, mainly for the protection of crops. The period covered by such licence - June to end December - allows for the undisturbed breeding season of rabbits. It is a perfectly controlled legal form of hunting with a very specific purpose.

BirdLife Malta record 21 regular breeders and about 17 occasional breeders, birds that have bred here since time immemorial despite rabbit hunting. These birds are the few that find Malta's climatic conditions ideal for breeding. The pair of common stilts, little ringed plovers and a pair of coots recorded to have attempted to breed or bred in Malta rely on wetlands for success. The only wetlands in Malta are two fenced and well-guarded ponds each less than the size of a football pitch.

The bottom line is that the existing rabbit-hunting does in no way pose any threats to breeding birds, whether rare breeders or not. Such a threat is purely a BirdLife Malta fabrication aimed at restricting legal hunting. Immaterial of the duration of any season, should any hunter, whether out hunting rabbits or birds during their respective seasons, in any way break the hunting laws, Malta's police cater for any such abuse.