Hunters cannot avoid committing animal cruelty, according to outgoing German Ambassador Hubert Ziegler.

This embassy regularly receives e-mails from people who found this behaviour so disgusting they won’t come

“Even if you are an experienced hunter, the day will come when you miss your target a little bit and the animal will be suffering, and it will be your fault,” Dr Ziegler said.

Dr Ziegler approached The Sunday Times to share his personal views on hunting ahead of his retirement from diplomatic service in three months’ time.

He made it clear he was speaking in a personal capacity and not communicating the official views of the German Government or trying to influence Saturday’s general election.

Hunting issues have been headline news in recent days, with the hunters’ federation (FKNK) admitting it was close to officially backing the Labour Party in the election in return for concessions.

According to Dr Ziegler, Malta would be much more attractive to “quality” tourists if it shed its image as a hunting black spot.

All German guidebooks to Malta contained a passage on “bird killing” which discouraged potential tourists from visiting, Dr Ziegler pointed out.

“This embassy regularly receives e-mails from people who say they wanted to come to Malta but they find this behaviour (illegal hunting) so disgusting they won’t come,” the ambassador said.

On the spring hunting of birds, which is prohibited by the EU Birds Directive but allowed by the Maltese Government using a contentious derogation, Dr Ziegler said: “I would prefer that there are no derogations to hunting rules at all, in any country.

“All those birds that are being killed in spring in southern Europe will be missed in central and northern Europe. These birds that are killed will not breed, and will not eat insects and snails as nature intended”.

Last summer, the ambassador was the target of an open letter from the hunting lobby regarding the behaviour of the Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS), a Germany-based activist group which came to Malta to monitor the spring hunting season.

Hunters were angered that CABS had used a remote-controlled model airplane to film trapping illegalities, but Dr Ziegler did not share their anger.

He said he did not respond to the open letter because he had assumed it was more of a public statement. He also expressed support for the work of CABS in exposing illegalities.

Dr Ziegler declared from the outset he was against all forms of hunting live animals in any country that went beyond necessity.

“It is our duty as human beings to do everything we can to leave nature in peace as much as possible,” he said.

Over-hunting in the past meant that the hunting of certain species in some countries was now necessary to correct imbalances in the food chain, he said. Anything that went beyond controlling the balance of nature was unacceptable, according to Dr Ziegler.

His opposition to hunting extended to killing wild birds for the table.

Asked why this was different to consuming chicken bought from a supermarket, he replied: “Every animal that is eaten has to be killed, but there is a difference between eating something that has been bred for this purpose and eating an animal that is walking around or flying around in nature.”

He added that he made a conscious effort to purchase meat from animals that had been treated with respect.

The scholarly ambassador loosely translated a line from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s play Faust to describe his intrinsic opposition to hunting live animals for pleasure: “Something inside gives you an indication of what you should do and what you should avoid”.

Had Dr Ziegler ever tried hunting?

As a young boy, he confessed, he would take his father’s airgun – used for chasing rabbits away from crops – and shoot at wild birds.

One day he shot a song thrush and the bird dropped to the ground, bleeding and fluttering in panic.

“My father said: ‘It’s your bird, bring it to an end’. I brought it to an end, but that was also the end for me. I had learnt my lesson. Never again in my life did I hurt a live bird,” he said.