The "extremist" attitude of Birdlife Malta can never lead to any sort of reconciliation with hunters, the FKNK said in a statement this morning.

It was reacting to a court judgment which dismissed a libel suit filed by Birdlife against the hunting federation’s president Joe Perici Calascione, which held that the FKNK had a right to complain about an anti-hunting bias in booklets distributed to schoolchildren by Birdlife.

"As a consequence BLM's true identity and intentions have finally been revealed, since they could not stomach the relative sentence handed down by the court. In not so many words, BLM admitted that their only objective is to abolish Maltese hunting and trapping passions, because they do not, and can never come to accept such traditions," the FKNK said.

The FKNK hopes that the politicians and the public will recognise which of the two organisations is an "extremist and always up-in-arms".

Foreign eNGOs and ecotourism ventures work hand-in-hand with hunters who follow the law. Together with farmers, they are the ones who spend time in the countryside. With Birdlife adopting such tough stances, it does not bode well for any future collaboration, said the statement, signed by FKNK CEO Lino Farrugia.