A responsible hunter would not have made the “mistake” of illegally shooting a protected cuckoo and would not have fired unless he was certain he had correctly identified the bird, according to a representative of the hunting community.
“On certain flights – if it’s diving to a tree, or coming down to land, or if the sun is in your eyes – it might be possible to confuse a cuckoo with a turtle dove,” St Hubert’s Hunters president Mark Mifsud Bonnici said.
“But most hunters can identify any bird without problems, and know not to take chances if they’re not sure what they’re shooting – especially after what we’ve seen.”
Hunter Stefan Micallef, 43, was arraigned on Wednesday and pleaded guilty to shooting a protected cuckoo in Manikata after being filmed by Birdlife Malta volunteers. He said he mistook the cuckoo for a permitted turtle dove.
I have been saying for six weeks that more illegalities happen in an open season, and I was proved right two days later
Mr Micallef was fined €2,500, his shotgun and ammunition were confiscated and his licence was revoked for three-and-a-half years. He was also suspended from the hunting federation, FKNK.
While condemning the incident, Mr Mifsud Bonnici said it had been “over-inflated” by people baying for “blood” after losing in last week’s referendum.
“I believe we have people’s trust after the referendum. Hunters have learned their lesson and we’re trying to keep what we’ve gained,” he said.
Following the incident, Twitter and Facebook were awash with calls for the Prime Minister to keep his promise of closing the season in the event of “flagrant abuse of hunting laws”. Many posts included the hashtags #JosephZommKelmtek and #closetheseason.
A Facebook event page was also created for a protest this Sunday calling for the season to be closed. One of the organisers told Times of Malta, however, that after further consideration, the protest would not be taking place on the proposed date, “so as not to judge the whole community on the actions” of a handful.
Mark Sultana, spokesman for the anti-hunting campaign, dissociated himself from calls for a protest, saying such an initiative was “premature” and could potentially harm the lobby.
“A total of 49.6 per cent voting against spring hunting is a strong enough message. There’s already a pro-environment, pro-enforcement wave and the pressure is now on the government,” he said.
“I have been saying for six weeks that more illegalities happen in an open season, and I was proved right two days later,” he said.
“This incident was only caught because it happened to be monitored by Birdlife. Effective law enforcement would mean birds aren’t shot illegally because hunters are aware of the presence of officers.”
Mr Sultana added that Wednesday’s incident could have been caused in part by a recent change to the law allowing hunting two hours before sunrise, as the offender claimed the low light made it difficult for him to identify the bird.
He called on the Prime Minister to explain whether there would be a limit to illegalities or not before the season was closed.
The government has so far stopped short of defining what would constitute “flagrant illegalities”.
A Birdlife Malta spokeswoman said last year’s autumn hunting season had been suspended by the Prime Minister after the shooting of a protected dotterel on September 19 and a white stork three days earlier.
She said the latter incident was particularly deplorable, as the bird was part of a flock of 10, three of which had been ringed and came from a conservation project in Italy, where they had been reared and released to replenish the stock.
The spokeswoman said if a similarly public incident, or series of incidents, happened this year, she would expect the spring hunting season to be closed.
Following the incident, Twitter and Facebook were awash with calls for the PM to keep his promise of closing the season in the event of “flagrant abuse of hunting laws”. Many posts were hashtagged #JosephZommKelmtek and #closetheseason.
