British ornithologist and TV personality Bill Oddie is accusing the hunters’ federation of “verbal bullying” after it issued a statement questioning his mental state. The FKNK last week controversially branded Mr Oddie, who was in Malta supporting Birdlife’s campaign against spring hunting, a “mental case”.

Mr Oddie, who has spoken openly about his bouts of depression and suffering from bipolar disorder, lambasted FKNK’s remarks as “outrageous”.

“I honestly did not know whether to laugh or cry when I came across this statement,” he told Times of Malta when contacted in the UK. “I never came across something like this before. I cannot accept such remarks as criticism. This is classic bullying. However, I will not even bother to sue people about these remarks,” he said.

FKNK president Joe Perici Calascione had attempted to justify the federation’s comments by saying the point was to question the reliability of Mr Oddie. However, Richmond Foundation CEO Antoinette Shah had come out slamming FKNK’s statement as “extremely unethical” and “very degrading”.

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