Hunting for birds in Malta has been a polemical issue for decades as there is a clear divide between those in favour and those against it. This was epitomised in the KSU debate last week by the antagonism bet­ween Birdlife representative Mark Sammut and Kaċċaturi San Umber­tu official Mark Mifsud Bonnici.

In the past, hunters could enjoy their sport unhindered, firstly, because there were far fewer people going out hunting, and secondly because Malta was much more sparsely populated, allowing the relatively few hunters to indulge in their sport to their hearts’ content without causing any disturbance.

As time passed, the government found it more difficult to control the bird hunting minority as hunters were accustomed to using parts of the countryside as they saw fit and did not look favourably upon efforts to restrict the liberty they used to enioy. The situation has been exacerbated since Malta joined the EU in 2004.

Mifsud Bonnici criticised the previous administration for the way it handled the situation, saying: “Before the [2003] election, the government promised the hunters’ federation [FKNK] it would be involved in the negotiations with the EU; instead [they] sent Saviour Balzan to negotiate.”

Parliamentary secretary for animal rights Roderick Galdes said he wants to strike a balance between bird hunters’ passion for their sport and environmentalists’ concerns.

At the moment the petition for a referendum on spring hunting is before the Constitutional Court that will have to decide early next year whether it is valid, and if so, whether the referendum may proceed. Until then, things are still very uncertain, except that 2015 will be packed with more polemics about bird hunting.

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