It is now very obvious that the anti-spring hunting campaigners want to confuse illegal hunting with legal spring hunting. No wonder Birdlife has always objected to work hand in hand with the hunters to curb or limit illegal hunting.

I happen to be one of those hunters who has always observed the law and I have also contributed to combat illegal hunting.

On a recent edition of Xarabank a member of the anti-hunting lobby kept screaming that we hunters have five months to hunt turtle doves and quails.

This is not the case because we only have one week to hunt for these birds and only a small part of the island benefits from this bird migration in autumn.

It has also been established by experts that autumn is not a satisfactory season for hunting these two types of birds.

I am fully committed to fight illegal hunting but these campaigners should keep their hands off the very limited and controlled spring hunting for turtle dove and quails.

I am all out for a referendum and for the people to decide, but for goodness sake, let us not try to deceive the electorate by mixing up illegal and legal hunting.

I appeal to all those involved to keep the campaign clean so as to allow the electorate to decide the fate of spring hunting in a democratic way.