The hunting federation lashed out at the government yesterday for the “stringent conditions” imposed on spring hunting that are turning their pastime into a “tortuous” pursuit.
We leave judgment of these messages to Maltese taxpayers- Birdlife
FKNK general secretary Lino Farrugia said on the basis of meetings with high officials, among them Environment Minister Mario de Marco, they had been led to believe hunters would have an “appropriate” and “reasonable” season, but few things changed from last year.
“We were urging our tormented members – some of whom have not had the chance to book their leave – to be patient, but it was not to be,” Mr Farrugia said.
The spring hunting season opens on Thursday and runs until April 30 – a total of 16 days excluding Sundays. The government is allowing 11,000 turtle doves and 5,000 quails to be shot, substantially more than last year when the season was limited to 9,000 turtle doves and 2,500 quails.
However, the FKNK is still contesting the government’s maximum allowed by its legal framework insisting the method used was wrong and “manipulated”.
Federation president Joe Perici Calascione said according to the European Commission, bag limits should be based on one per cent of a species’ mortality, which FKNK claimed would be 120,000 turtle doves and 79,000 quails according to its scientific calculations.
Mr Farrugia insisted the FKNK was not expecting the government to meet these figures, but allowing “an individual and national quota to shoot two birds a day” – a maximum of four birds per hunter throughout the entire season – was merely instigating abuse.
Hunters also have to report their catch by sending a text message to the Malta Environment and Planning Authority, but it seems they have been instructed to be judicious with their SMSs, according to Birdlife Malta.
Birdlife yesterday revealed a post uploaded by the FKNK administrator on its internet forum on April 4, which it sent to the media. This read: “Be careful, because if everyone catches one bird and sends an SMS, the season will close the next day.”
The wording of this post has since changed to: “The national quotas are... this may mean that if on April 12 there is a minor push in migration and everyone catches the two birds he’s entitled to, the season will close the next day.”
“Birdlife Malta leaves the judgment of these messages to the Maltese taxpayers, as well as the European Commission officials,” it said.
In all, some 6,000 hunters have registered to hunt this season compared with 5,616 last year, but Mr Perici Calascione made it clear that although it was not going to deprive hunters of indulging in their pastime, the FKNK did not agree with the terms imposed by government.
The FKNK said the season should have stretched for a month between April 7 and May 7 and not prohibited hunting on Sundays and public holidays.
It also criticised the €50 fee to acquire a special licence to hunt during the spring season.
Mr Farrugia said the government needed this fee to pay the police to enforce the regulations, and while it agreed with this it did not accept enforcement from foreigners brought in by CABS and Birdlife.
“Also, we would have agreed more with enforcement, even cooperated as we always have, had we been given what is due to us by right,” he said.
“However, I will still encourage hunters and trappers to strictly abide by the laws. We will not tolerate some clown who thinks he can do what he pleases at the expense of thousands of others.”