Birdlife Malta yesterday filed a judicial protest calling for the withdrawal of the legal notice regulating spring hunting, which for the first time in years allows hunting to take place on Sundays and public holidays.
The environmental NGO asked the court to annul the legal notice that permits the hunting of quail and turtle dove during the time they are breeding and migrating to their rearing grounds.
Meanwhile, a group of MEPs called on the European Commission to suspend derogations that allow spring hunting to be practised in Malta.
A delegation representing 39 MEPs from 11 countries made the call during a meeting with Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik.
Birdlife Malta’s executive director Steve Micklewright said it was clear that many MEPs were “extremely concerned” about the impact of spring hunting in Malta on Europe’s birds.
He said that given the government’s established position, a hunting referendum was emerging as the only way spring hunting could be challenged.
The judicial protest was filed against Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, Environment Minister Leo Brincat, Animal Rights Parliamentary Secretary Roderick Galdes, Ornis Committee chairman Mark Anthony Falzon, Wild Birds Regulation Unit head Sergei Golovkin and the Attorney General.
In the protest, Birdlife complained of the abuse and illegality resulting from the legal notice allowing spring hunting this year.
The NGO argued that the government failed to satisfy the conditions of legislation setting out the criteria to be met to allow spring hunting.
The main condition before spring hunting can be considered legal is that there must be no detrimental impact on populations of the species hunted
According to regulations on the conservation of wild birds, hunting of quail and turtle dove was not allowed during their reproduction period or while they were returning to their rearing grounds.
Both species migrated over Malta in spring – a time when they reproduced – on their way to their rearing grounds in Europe.
The legal notice, Birdlife argued, made the conservation of these species redundant and was also abusive and illegal as last year’s autumn hunting season had been satisfactory.
Birdlife’s conservation manager Nicholas Barbara said the opening of a hunting season in spring for turtle dove and quail was dependent on the number of these birds reported shot and bagged by hunters in autumn, but these figures were shown to be unreliable.
“The primary condition that must be met before spring hunting can even be considered to be legal is that there must be no detrimental impact on the European populations of the species hunted,” said Mr Barbara.
However, the legislation has completely neglected the unfavourable conservation status of both turtle doves and quail in Europe.
Instead, the framework legislation referred incorrectly to the global conservation status of the species. This was used to justify spring hunting in Malta and it was completely wrong, he said.
“We have already raised all of these issues with the Malta Ornis Committee and the Wild Birds Regulations Unit, but they have just been brushed aside,” Mr Barbara said.
“It is clear that these serious concerns were not receiving proper consideration by the responsible authorities, so we have been forced to take them to the judiciary instead.”
The government issued a rebuttal to several of Birdlife’s arguments. On the claimed illegalities, it said Malta has the highest ratio of enforcement deployment per square kilometre of countryside anywhere in Europe and it has one of the harshest penalty regimes against illegal shooting.
A new administrative fines system was also showing “impressive” results in curbing minor infringements that previously clogged the justice system.
On the claim that the number of birds shot and bagged in autumn was unreliable, the government said Malta had one of the most rigorous hunting bag verification and control regimes in Europe.
There was harsh legal deterrent against non-reporting, a system of spot checks in the field, rigorous data quality controls and a high rate of return of the completed carnet de chasse.
And at no point did the spring hunting framework regulation refer to “global conservation status”, the government said.
Also, the negative trends reported in the population of turtle doves and quail was “scientifically insignificant”, according to the latest assessment.
Most of these species that migrate over Malta came from EU countries with either stable or increasing populations.
Meanwhile, the hunting federation (FKNK) has disassociated itself from the three youths who were found guilty of shooting protected birds and hunting during the closed season.
In a statement, the organisation yesterday said the youths were not FKNK members.