The Shout campaign is going overboard in its attempt to stop hunting in Malta.

The public must be made aware that among the SHout campaigners there are declared abolitionists who many years back had declared that they will not stop their campaign against hunting and trapping until these are completely abolished in Malta. This is most unfair. By what authority or right can these abolitionists do this?

The Shout campaign has degenerated into an intense investment in the hatred of the hunting community in Malta and all that is associated with it, like private land ownership.

They never speak of the minimal numbers of quail and turtle doves that are hunted. These numbers are so minimal that the European Court of Justice found them to be negligible and of no significance in relation to the respective status of both species. Thus the court declared that Malta has a right to a derogation for spring hunting within the parameters allowed under the Birds Directive.

It should be noted that spring consists of 2,184 hours but the spring hunting season only covers 162 hours, hardly eight per cent. Apart from these heavily restricted times, the quota for each hunter is again minimal, four birds, quail and/or turtle doves for all the season. Many do not even manage to get that.

The abolitionists know very well that the hunters’ figures have been scientifically proven to be correct. So the Shout campaigners have turned their campaign against the illegalities and not at what they know is legally and morally acceptable even to the highest European court. The referendum question is about quail and turtle-dove hunting and not about illegalities which are and will always remain illegal.

And why, may I ask, are we being told to keep politics out of this issue? Was it not a political issue when all the political parties wooed hunters before and after we entered the EU?

Were we not guaranteed spring hunting by Eddie Fenech Adami, Simon Busuttil and Joseph Muscat and all election candidates who are now in Parliament as our representatives? Do we not have a right to know who of these representatives are pro- spring hunting and those who are not? Or is it now acceptable for us to be stabbed in the back?

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