Policing hunting and the countryside

The news item Foreign Birdwatchers Step Up Security (August 31) raises questions, including that of the credibility of the Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS).

Showing a complete lack of trust in Malta’s police force, CABS discarded the offer of police escorts paid for by the FKNK, the hunters’ federation. According to president Heinz Schwarze, CABS teams intend roaming the Maltese countryside accompanied by hired security guards and armed with video cameras to prevent the escalation of violence. By refusing police protection are we to assume that CABS are prepared to take the law into their own hands while paying for their own protection?

CABS declare they “will be posing (sic) as tourists” to identify and report illegal trapping installations. Similar actions by CABS in Cyprus resulted in warnings to tourists not to roam the countryside after several conflicts (www.komitee.de/en/index.php?warning). Is the minister responsible for tourism prepared to take such risks when the same job is being admirably conducted by the police force?

CABS’ local partners, as stated on their own website, are Birdlife Malta, Nature Trust and International Animal Rescue. Their partnership makes them equally responsible for any consequences resulting from such vigilantism.

Mr Schwarze insisted that “CABS was only concerned with curbing illegal bird shooting and trapping and claims that it was seeking a total ban on hunting in Malta were “absolutely false’”. Unfortunately for the CABS president, the facts are not as he depicts them.

One of CABS’ statements on their website explains their intentions for being in Malta as one of “numerous projects to combat the hunting and trapping of migrant birds in the Mediterranean region”. They do not distinguish between the legal and the illegal in their struggle to ban such activities and consider all as a severe threat. “Hunters, poachers, trappers and animal traders all represent a severe threat to our migrant birds along the whole of their migration routes.”

We remind Mr Schwarze that, in September 2008, he “demanded” of the Maltese Prime Minister that Lawrence Gonzi stop all hunting immediately and ban it until October 15. Also that David Conlin, the CABS Malta operations manager, has petitioned the EU Commission and the European Parliament “not to relent until Malta is a bird hunting-free zone”.

Finally, we also remind Mr Schwarze of the statement by CABS officials Axel Hirschfeld and Mr Conlin (The Times, May 2, 2008) that “our organisation will do its utmost to ensure that the turtle dove and the common quail (Malta’s main game birds) are removed as huntable species from Appendix II of the Birds Directive”.

How a society bearing the name of the Committee Against Bird Slaughter can ever justify not being after a hunting ban is incomprehensible.

The truth that should be obvious is that all these declarations together amount to seeking a total ban on hunting and trapping. While we pledge our full support towards Malta’s police and initiatives against illegalities in collaboration with the police, we condemn an organisation that employs given tactics in a bid to achieve its ultimate goal.