Contrary to claims by Birdlife Malta and other budding experts trying to influence the public about hunting, the only official available population status on the turtle dove and common quail upon which any hunting is approved is that provided by the International Union of the Conservation of Nature, the IUCN.

This official classification of birds indicates quite clearly that the species in question are considered to be of least concern, meaning that the hunting of such birds is sustainable. The European Commission publishes all the required data for each country in the EU that hunts turtle dove and common quail in autumn. The figure for quail is four million, while the figure for turtle dove is three million.

By permitting such a significant number to be shot, the European Commission rubbishes all the nonsense being fed to an uninformed public by those abolitionists out to ban spring hunting with a vengeance.

The European Court of Justice concluded that Maltese hunters have “insufficient hunting opportunities in autumn” and ruled in a legally binding verdict the right for the government to apply a derogation for a 19-half-day period under very strictly supervised conditions in spring.

Both the ECJ and the Commission are well aware that Malta’s derogation is being applied “when birds are on their way to breed” and accept this fact as part of their argument that autumn hunting for these two birds in the “exceptional case of Malta” does not offer a “satisfactory solution”.

So much so that spring hunting under derogation is also practised in other EU member states. The UK permits the eradication of certain species by means of hunting and the destruction of their eggs and nests as do another 17 member states.

It is only in Malta that the ECJ ruling and the Commission’s approval of a derogation and the government’s application of it is depicted as a disgrace and ridiculed.

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