Will we soon have an edict stating that hunters should go around in groups shouting ‘hunters, hunters’ warning people that they are around? Lepers were forced to do that in New Testament times.

Perhaps I exaggerate, but I don’t think I am exaggerating a lot. It seems that for people in certain quarters hunters are becoming the new lepers. The gross stereotyping of all, the emotional description of the abuse by the few; the blanket condemnations and the general use of language bordering on the insulting are just few signs of this attitude.

It is true that over several decades many hunters did their darn best to achieve this status. Many behaved in a cowboy manner thinking that they could shoot anything that flies. They bullied politicians: it is either hunting or no vote. During the run up for Malta’s accession into the EU everything could have been lost for the lust of those for whom killing birds was more important than the future of their children and this country.

In fairness to hunters it is becoming obvious that several other lobbies are doing what the hunters did but are just doing it in a more subtle way.

But it is also true that most hunters have now learnt their lesson and have realised that they can only enjoy their way of life – not just a pastime or hobby – if they practice it within the parameters of the law. After the referendum both hunter organisations went out of their way to keep in line those among them who were prone to abuse. They even asked their members to report abuse. One can argue that that did this not out of conviction but out of the instinct of self-preservation. This could very well be true. But independently of intentions, the official attitude of zero-tolerance to abuse is welcome.

I, therefore, do empathise with those law-abiding hunters who feel that it is not right that the consequences of the sins of the very few are foisted on them who respect the law. Collective punishments can only be justified, if they can, in extreme cases. I think that hunters are right to state that such an extreme situation has not been reached and that the closing of the hunting season two days before its official closure was not fair. Besides it did not help in any realistic way the cause of conservation.