Labour leader Joseph Muscat adopted the vocabulary of the hunting lobby, Birdlife Malta said yesterday.

The conservation NGO expressed concern that Dr Muscat said he wanted “Maltese hunters and trappers to be treated like those in other European states, such as France”.

He also said he was ready to apply derogations where this was applicable.

Birdlife Malta’s executive director Steve Micklewright said such statements “obscure the truth that hunters and trappers in Malta enjoy privileges not given to any of their European counterparts and these privileges are prohibited under EU wildlife protec-tion regulations”.

Hunters in Malta could legally shoot 41 bird species during the five-month autumn hunting season, compared with 18 wild bird species in the UK, Birdlife said.

France had regularly applied derogations for the trapping of five species, but not finches, it pointed out.

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