Damage to Malta’s reputation

Tenor Joseph Calleja is right. We are not a nation of bird killers.

Thankfully, the bird killers are a tiny minority. For a tiny minority, though, they are causing inestimable damage to our tiny islands. I reported in a letter to The Times that the hunting season had begun in Gozo days before the official start. This was rebutted by the St Hubert Hunters as the work of “one person”. Rubbish, it was the work of many.

Since the end of April – the end of the spring hunting season – it hasn’t stopped. Indeed, from May 1 to 10 my wife and myself have been blasted out of bed by shooters between 5.45 and 6 every morning. Not just one shooter but many. On one morning, counting three in sight across the valley, one with dogs, I telephoned the police but there was no action. Sunday morning, May 6, it started again at 5.45. This was a barrage that fully lasted two hours without respite.

We watched half a dozen illegal hunters roaming the valley without any fear or shame. Of course, the daily suspect with the white dogs was there in his favourite area. Another call to the police resulted in no action and the much looked forward to Sunday lie in was ruined. In fact, we haven’t had a lie in since the hunting season started days before it should have done. This morning, May 11, was no exception, though I think this was the work of just one hunter. It is now 4 p.m. and the shots are still being fired sporadically. We have given up with telephoning the police and just expect the cruelty and killing to go on.

Our constant loss of sleep is inconsequential to the damage these criminals are causing to the bird life and reputation of Malta. We advised a friend of my wife not to visit us before May 1 because of the problems of the spring hunting season. Sadly, she arrived on May 5 and endured the Sunday atrocity. She is returning to the UK with “red eye” from lack of sleep. Some holiday! As with the Norwegian couple who wrote about their experiences (May 10), she wonders why it is tolerated and, of course, she will not be back.

David Cardona, of the St Hubert Hunters, wrote in what I consider on the whole a very balanced letter that “in Gozo, everybody knows what goes on and who does what but nobody knows anything when push comes to shove”. How true that statement is. And I cannot help thinking that this is because of fear of the consequences of reporting illegal hunters. There is also the possibility that reporting the matter is a waste of time because nothing is done by the authorities. Perhaps complacency has simply set in. Either way it is sad for the Maltese islands because of the damage legal and illegal hunting is doing to the tourist industry and its moral reputation in the wider world.

Mr Cardona ended his letter saying “I need to acknowledge the fact that the Qala-Nadur-Xagħra area has long been famous for its hunting and long may it remain so”. History showed us that human sacrifice in the Coliseum was long famous in ancient Rome. Until the relevant authorities and the majority of people decided it was barbaric and put a stop to it. Just because something has been going on for generations does not make it right. Perhaps, soon, the government will see just how much collateral damage hunting is causing and put the issue to a fair referendum.

Finally, on the issue of whether it was right for Germany’s RTL channel to broadcast its documentary. Of course, it was. This was pure journalism and recorded reality. What world are these criminals living in for them to suggest that broadcasting their obscene behaviour is illegal? The mind boggles at such shameless assertions. The microcosm of these few individuals’ behaviour is every day exploding into the macrocosm of the outside world.

Maybe the speed of satellite technology that is spreading the word of what is going on over here will soon shame Malta into putting all this deviant behaviour where it belongs. History. If it doesn’t, people will exercise their choice, label us barbaric and, en masse, go elsewhere. The writing is on the wall.