Over this festive season you may be approached by someone knocking on your door asking if you have a hobby and would like to make sure it is protected. You may meet someone outside a supermarket and they may ask you to sign a petition to protect minorities.

Do not be deceived. These people have no interest in protecting any minority or genuine hobby. All they want to do is ensure that they can carry on their own selfish pastime of shooting birds in the springtime. These are, after all, Maltese hunters.

In response to the fact that the Coalition for the Abolition of Spring Hunting has now collected more than 35,000 signatures to call for a referendum to abolish the legislation that allows spring hunting to take place, the FKNK hunters’ federation has launched its own petition to try to stop that referendum from taking place. They are describing their petition as something that would protect minorities from the majority of people calling for a referendum to take away their rights or hobbies.

So, according to FKNK logic, if you are a cyclist, rock-climber or horse-rider, you should sign this petition to prevent any future referendum taking place that might affect your hobby. They conveniently ignore the fact that the people can only call for a referendum to abolish legislation and it is very hard to identify any legislation that could be removed that would make most hobbies illegal. Even the referendum to abolish spring hunting is not calling for total abolition, just banning it when it causes most damage to birds returning to Europe to breed. So this is really just scare tactics and no one should be taken in by this.

I am sure most members of true minority groups will have been deeply offended by the FKNK seeking to compare the hunting of birds to the equal rights under the law that minority groups should expect in a modern society

More pernicious and cynical has been the FKNK’s call for true minorities – like lesbian and gay people – to sign the petition to prevent any future referendum removing their rights.

Now, of course, lesbians and gays, disabled people, women, people with different religious beliefs are all true minorities whose rights have been hard won and deserve proper protection.

But again, to sign a petition to stop a referendum from happening in the future is no way to protect the rights you have today.

This is because any attempt to remove the basic rights of true minorities can be challenged through the European Union, as we have seen with the various cases against Malta for its treatment of asylum seekers.

I am sure most members of true minority groups will have been deeply offended by the FKNK seeking to compare the hunting of birds to the equal rights under the law that minority groups should expect in a modern society.

The real way for the FKNK to protect spring hunting is to enter the referendum debates when they happen and make their case and then let the people decide. That is what democracy is all about.

But sadly, the hunters’ federation knows very little about democracy. Instead they would rather try to frighten people into calling for the removal of a basic constitutional right. No doubt this will be accompanied by their usual tactics of threatening politicians with removing the support of hunters at future elections. But any politician must think very carefully before agreeing to remove a basic constitutional right, such as that of calling for a referendum.

Furthermore, any politician must also be aware that as the numbers of people signing the petition to abolish spring hunting grows, any attempt to stop that from happening will have very serious consequences at election time too.

So how do we overcome this attempt to undermine basic constitutional rights by the hunters’ federation in pursuit of their own narrow and selfish interests?

The Coalition for the Abolition of Spring Hunting is still collecting signatures for a referendum so we can have a genuine debate and vote about this issue once and for all.

Signing that petition is probably the best way of protecting the rights to have a referendum about issues people care about. And if that results in the abolition of spring hunting, many ramblers, cyclists and rock-climbers will at least be able to enjoy their hobbies in peace in spring.

Moreover, women will be able to take their children into the beautiful Maltese countryside in springtime knowing that they will not be intimidated by men with guns shooting at anything that flies.

And the other minority, the one without its own voice, the birds that fly over Malta on their way to mainland Europe to breed, will no longer die here.

Copies of the petition to call for a referendum to abolish spring hunting can be downloaded from the BirdLife Malta website. Only Maltese residents that can vote in a general election can sign.

Steve Micklewright is executive director of BirdLife Malta and chairs the Coalition for the Abolition of Spring Hunting .