Is ‘illegal hunting’ the problem?

Articles against hunting in the media are appearing faster than a bird can fly, online polls are calling for the early closure of a perfectly legally applied derogation and claims of rampant abuse has even stirred the MHRA to believe Malta indeed has a serious problem with illegal hunting. What really is the problem?

Whether it’s the shooting of protected species or exceeding derogation quotas, our media gurus, our hoteliers and correspondents have two options upon which to base their claims. They either take the word of hunters, the enforcement authorities and the parliamentary secretary responsible for hunting or that of associations such as Birdlife Malta, the Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) and their foreign ‘tourist’ correspondents and supporters.

With a declared intention of putting an end to spring hunting and their considering any form of hunting as bird slaughter, a few illegalities are tuned into an international shame for obvious reasons. These illegalities are broadcast around the four corners of the world and considering that they can only be contradicted by hunters, they seem credible to all and sundry.

If the media believes they are credible or it relishes the anti-hunting publicity, it only proves its bias and only adds to the animosity with its unverified coverage of the issue. Should the MHRA see any threat to tourism stemming from illegal hunting after the last years of record tourist arrivals, then it too is led by the nose by the deceitful propaganda of Birdlife and CABS.

There is no doubt that illegalities occur but to what extent no one can actually verify other than the hunter.

The wrongdoings of 10,000 hunters on a minuscule island, if indeed such wrongdoings were so rife, would amount to far more than the pittance recorded by many intent on exposing even a missing feather.

Yet what is claimed to be the “tip of the iceberg” could in fact be practically all that occurs. And yet our learned journalists and those in the tourist industry gullibly believe it is not.

Has it ever occurred to those with even an iota of intelligence that they might be barking up the wrong tree and that the problem to be addressed is the pre-meditated and well orchestrated fabrication that might lead to the fulfillment of the dreams of those that oppose hunt-ing at the expense of Malta’s international image?