After reading Mark Anthony Falzon’s column ‘Preying on birds of prey’ (The Sunday Times of Malta, May 3) I believe that the author should resign his chairmanship of the Ornis Committee, a body whose purpose is to find a balance between hunters and environmentalists.

In more than one of his contributions to your paper he has promoted the hunters’ cause and therefore I question the way he can chair and balance a meeting between the two opposite factions – the hunters and the environmentalists (or Birdlife representatives) when he has a publicly biased opinion.

In spite of his many academical achievements, he has not yet learnt the basic attribute of chairmanship – impartiality.

Furthermore, he criticises the Prime Minister for closing the hunting season by tweeting from Azerbaijan three days before the official closure. What did he expect? Nearly each day brought news of serious illegalities by hunters. These were only a fraction of other illegalities which were not reported, such as the flagrant firing of five shooters in places such as Bidnija.

On the other hand, thanks to the Prime Minister’s tweet, the villagers of Bidnija and many tourists were able to enjoy the sound and vision of dozens of bee-eaters and hundreds of other birds during these three days, when normally these intelligent creatures would be conspicuous by their absence due to the noise of guns.

It is an anomaly that 11,000 hunters prevent 400,000 Maltese and 1,500,000 tourists from walking safely in our countryside during the best parts of the year, spring and autumn.

Copying roughly one of our Prime Ministers quotes: “It is nice to know that the government has woken up and is smelling the coffee.”