The spring hunting referendum, as is being promoted, is purposely misleading as it plays on people’s sentiments and directs all those signing into believing that the illegal killing of protected birds will be stopped if they put their vote to a ban on spring hunting.
Throughout the Coalition to Abolish Spring Hunting (CASH) campaign, the illegal killing of birds by a few defaulters, a long going Birdlife Malta propaganda campaign to discredit hunting, is being used to brainwash people into supporting a referendum that, ultimately, is being directed to ban a legal hunting activity.
The Birdlife Malta/MaltaToday leaflet circulated for the collection of signatures depicts pictures of dead protected birds with the words “Help us stop this” and claims that “by signing the petition you can help stop illegal hunting”.
Clearly, though the referendum is supposedly intended to ban spring hunting, the majority of those signing have no clue what spring hunting comprises, the reason why it is practised in spring or that it is legally possible. For obvious reasons, the coalition failed to provide such fact and repeatedly contorted facts, whether they originated from the European Commission or its emissaries, the government or any other trustworthy source.
Little do they know that the 15,000 birds permitted to be legally shot in spring under an EU-endorsed derogation are intended to replace the opportunity to shoot over four million of the same two species of birds by European hunters in autumn. Considering illegal killing, though not a major problem as depicted by Birdlife Malta, is unfortunately a year-round happening totally blown out of proportion and its eradication is given the utmost attention by the authorities, how can a ban on a two-week legal season in spring stop illegal killing?
This is even more unlikely when the presence of legal hunters has statistically resulted in a drastic decline of such crime. Undoubtedly, many people have been deceived.
Clearly though, deceitfully, only spring hunting is being targeted, the coalition’s intention is to garner support from a brainwashed sector of Maltese society that has been conditioned to abhor hunting. People who care no less whether the ban concerns hunting in spring, autumn or winter but are simply after any form of hunting ban.
Apart from several comments in the social media to that effect, the CASH protest during the visit of the EU Environment Director General’s visit (picture attached) last October carries a clear message above a Gaia poster and right near the coalition spokesmen, which neither Rudolf Ragonesi’s assurance nor any other coalition apologetic can deny. Stop Hunting – the message is as clear as can be.
The coalition, to justify its reason for a referendum, maintains hunting in spring is illegal and, apart from other mistruths, slanderously accuses hunters of falsifying autumn figures for derogation in spring to be made possible.
Contrary to what Ragonesi and other CASH members claim, the truth is that, by derogating for spring hunting, Malta is not breaching any EU law and neither are autumn figures being falsified.
The European Court of Justice ruling undoubtedly confirmed, after considering all the evidence for and against spring hunting, that the cardinal principle that permits any derogation from the Birds Directive “that there be no other satisfactory solution, laid down in article 9(1) of the Directive, be considered met”.
The coalition’s unfounded arguments on hunting fail to convince anyone
The acceptance of this principle and its subsequent correct application other than for the years 2004 to 2007, notwithstanding the fallacy that hunting during the breeding season is illegal, is further endorsed by the EU Director General for the Environment, Karl Falkenberg, who, during the coalition protest last October, stated that “since the European Court of Justice ruled that spring hunting is permissible, Malta had brought its laws in line with European legislation”. Yet, rather than reading clauses 55 through to 63 of the Court’s findings to fine tune his legal competence, Ragonesi would have us all believe otherwise though he would never dare challenge the legal principle or the hunter’s records in court for fear of having to admit to reality.
The cheek of depicting our political leaders with guns pointed at their heads is but one vile example of CASH members portraying hunting as political hijack and why they are assuming that it is the coalition that wants to see the hunting issue put to a public referendum.
Some member bodies of the coalition have depicted successive governments as being held hostage by the hunter’s demands and of closing a blind eye to their wrongdoings when, in fact, they have never proved such accusations.
The political pledges made to hunters were a few of many pledges made to all sectors of Maltese society and are a privilege only those political parties elected to Parliament can afford. Clearly being out of the limelight since their inception, Alternattiva Demokratika cannot offer such luxuries and now aspire to garner the support of the environmentalist coalition, once all its other efforts to gain popularity have so miserably failed, to hijack our democratic principles.
The coalition’s unfounded arguments on hunting fail to convince anyone other than those that share its anti-hunting opinion. Is it surprising that, in a period of six months, given all the publicity to the referendum, the deceit used in order to collect signatures and the backing of years of anti-hunting propaganda, enough signatures to hijack our democratic processes have been collected? Were it indeed an issue of national importance, given the much-acclaimed “vast majority of the Maltese population that opposes hunting”, such a task should have taken a matter of weeks.
St Hubert Hunters deplore this politically-motivated sham, which, ultimately, is nothing short of an attempt by those opposing hunting and having abolitionist ideals to deny a minority of Maltese citizens their right to exercise their legal interests, privileges or rights as permitted under EU laws or derogations thereof.
St Hubert Hunters reiterate their unconditional support towards the petition to safeguard minority rights and urge all members of Parliament to safeguard the legal interests, privileges or rights of its citizens from the threat of abolition by an indoctrinated and biased sector of the Maltese public lead by a repeatedly unsuccessful political party that has no qualms about abusing our democratic processes to reach its objectives.
Mark Mifsud Bonnici is president of St Hubert Hunters.