The hunting lobby yesterday refuted accusations that it was trying to con voters by hiding its true identity behind a slick campaign unveiled last week, ahead of the April 11 spring hunting referendum.

With little more than a month till the country votes, both sides yesterday stepped up their efforts in a bid to garner more support in two separate events held in Valletta.

In a news conference at the Archaeology Museum, the campaign against spring hunting (Shout) launched a 30-second video clip to highlight what it described as the “true face” of hunting in Malta.

Mark Sultana and Moira Delia at the Shout news conference at the Archaeology Museum in Valletta. Photo: Jason Borg

Shout spokesman Mark Sultana commented that the video contained real footage of hunters intimidating people and shooting protected species.

“This footage will unmask the hunters lobby who are hiding behind the Yes campaign,” he said.

Urging voters not to be tricked by hunters Mr Sultana said that such incidents of “intolerance, vandalism and killing” were not a rare occurrence.

A report compiled by the Shout campaign claims that in the last 10 years there had been 14 incidents of violence against people, 16 cases of vandalism and nine reports of threats and harassments against the public.

These incidents are the tip of the iceberg and show why people must vote No to end spring hunting

Campaign spokesperson Moira Delia recounted the killing of rare marsh harriers, storks and flamingos.

“These incidents are the tip of the iceberg and show why people must vote No to end spring hunting,” the TV presenter said.

Mark Bonello of the hunting lobby. Photo: Paul Spiteri Lucas

Barely an hour later the hunting lobby fired back during a question and answer session held some 100 metres further down Republic Street, in front of the law courts. Economist Mark Bonello, who was one of the two speakers, insisted that the opposite camp was trying to portray a stereotyped image of the hunting lobby as part of a scaremongering campaign. “On the contrary the Yes movement is made up of people hailing from various walks of life and with different social backgrounds,” he said.

“The reality is that we are not pot-bellied pigs as one newspaper editor described us,” he added.

Last week Hunters’ Federation (FKNK) president Joe Perici Calascione stoked controversy when he compared the referendum to a “war” during an event to mark the launch of their campaign.

However, the federation’s lawyer Kathleen Grima who also addressed the event yesterday downplayed this remark.

“I am not seeing any state of war in Malta”, she said while accusing a member of the anti-hunting lobby of being the one who had adopted a confrontational approach.

Probed about the absence of the FKNK officials at the event, she said that Mr Perici Calascione had already participated in various television debates and so could not be accused of staying away from the limelight.

On the contrary she accused Birdlife director Steve Micklewright of being the one who was shunning the press.

During the event both speakers denied that turtle doves and quail could face extinction if spring hunting was retained, arguing that mechanisms were already in place to safeguard their populations.

They also pointed out that other EU member states such as Latvia and Finland were allowed to hunt certain species.

“It would be unfair to inflict a collective punishment on all hunters because of some illegalities committed by a small minority,” Dr Grima said.

Mr Bonello refuted claims that spring hunting denied the countryside access to non-hunters. “After all this issue is just about 20 half days in spring and during weekends hunting does not take place in the afternoon,” he said.