Spring hunting illegalities

I refer to the letter by David Borg Cardona, secretary of the St Hubert’s Hunters (The Sunday Times, April 22).

The propensity of Kaċċaturi San Ubertu hunters to open fire on anyone who dares to utter a peep about the dismalhunting situation in Malta is truly remarkable.

Hunters who line up behind St Hubert (also patron saint of mathematicians) may care to acknowledge another shameful year of protected bird casualties as the controversial spring hunting season closes.

The season only opens for the sake of a few quail and turtle dove yet gives de facto free rein to the many illegal hunters. BirdLife Malta reports that this year’s spring watch camp started off with a blast when a marsh harrier and kestrel were shot near Dwejra and illegalities recorded regularly at all nine monitored sites.

The government has been adding extra days to the spring season every year for the past three years despite mounting evidence of persistent abuse by illegal hunters.

After a closed season in 2009, regulated spring shooting was declared open for six days in 2010, then stretched to two weeks the following year. This year it has been extended yet again.

It is within this context that it is only fair to state that the government is brashly ignoring the original European verdict on spring hunting and bending over backwards to garner hunter votes while going against the wishes of the majority regarding protection of wild birds.

The European Court of Justice did in fact find Malta guilty of opening a spring hunting season every year after 2004 up to the year of the ruling.

It is a matter of opinion as to whether or not the government brashly ignored this in dishing out a derogation (based on allegedly over-conservative bag counts for the autumn season).

As long as there is a spring hunting season there will be nature offences and wild bird casualties while the rest of civilised Europe is doing its best to protect European birds.

Last year Birdlife Malta and the Committee Against Bird Slaughter recorded over 750 spring hunting illegalities.

As for claims of improving enforcement, the ratio of Administrative Law Enforcement officers to hunters remains the same as last year, stuck at seven officers for every 1,000 hunters. Clearly this is not enough to prevent the seasonal carnage that comes precisely at a time when wild birds should be breeding, not bleeding.