I would like to remind the Prime Minister and readers about an illegal trapping incident back in 2006, reported like this: “Carmel (Lino) Farrugia, a senior official of the hunters’ federation, has been fined €349.40 by the Appeals Court after he was found guilty of having encouraged or assisted another person to violate a police order to stop the trapping of birds... his attitude to the police, particularly when he told Mr Grech not to dismantle the nets, as ordered by the police, rendered him guilty of having assisted or encouraged Mr Grech to violate regulations”.

This goes to show how rampant illegal trapping is, and how difficult it is to stop such a ‘tradition’ ingrained in these individuals. If a senior hunting official of FKNK “was found guilty of having encouraged or assisted another person to violate a police order to stop the trapping of birds”, no wonder the countryside is sometimes filled with bird callers and they continue practising their despicable hobby with impunity.

And before anyone tries to abolish such ‘traditions’ like hunting and trapping, we were warned by the same individual, as secretary of the FKNK, in a press release dated July 7 of the same year, that we would have to first “step over a lot of dead bodies”!

If anyone has any doubts, it had been made absolutely clear: “BirdLife and co. will feel the full weight of the wrath of FKNK and Maltese hunters and trappers” who would “gladly accept the easy road of confrontation with BirdLife”.

I urge the Prime Minister not to continue to be deceived by these individuals and fall into their trap (or now that he has fallen in, to climb out as fast as he can).