Maltese hunters kill the chance of at least 190,000 chicks born each spring, the anti-spring hunting coalition said yesterday ahead of the April 11 referendum.

This was a conservative estimate based on 10,000 registered spring hunters in Malta each shooting a pair of turtle dove and quail, the Spring Hunting Out campaign (Shout) told a news conference yesterday.

“We have the strongest birds passing over Malta in spring to reach their breeding grounds. It makes no sense to kill them. And it’s not only turtle dove and quail being killed but protected species too,” Birdlife Malta trustee Mark Sultana said.

Mr Sultana said the spring hunting season acts as a cover to target rare and protected birds with at least 38 protected species being illegally shot in Malta during the last four spring hunting seasons.

“We know hunters shoot at protected species too. Zero tolerance can only mean voting ‘no’ in the referendum,” Mr Sultana said.

The main message of the campaign was that ‘spring never comes for the hunted’. Turtle dove numbers across Europe had declined by over 80 per cent and over 20 million of these birds disappeared since 1980.

TV presenter and animal rights activist Moira Delia said hunters would still have another five months of hunting in autumn if a ban on spring hunting was enforced. She urged everyone to speak up and make their voice heard in the referendum.

“My grandfather was a hunter. But we cannot continue to steal from future generations. This is why we voters must turn out on April 11 and vote ‘no’ to end this destruction,” she said, stressing that the countryside belonged to everyone and hunters were denying people the pleasure of nature in spring.

“On April 12, the day after the referendum, things can remain as they are or we can reclaim our countryside,” Ms Delia added.

Mr Sultana said it was arrogant of the hunters’ federation to contradict what prominent legal experts said about the fact that the referendum would not impact other hobbies.

We can reclaim our countryside

“The FKNK just dismissed the advice of experts. It’s an insult to our intelligence. Let them get their own legal experts to challenge those arguments rather than issuing blanket statements based on lies. Are they ashamed to just say they enjoy killing birds?” Mr Sultana said.

There were some 15 types of birds that could nest and breed in Malta if spring hunting was banned, the Shout campaign said. These included the barn owl, the common kestrel and the iconic Maltese and peregrine falcons.

Birdlife referred to the disappearance of two greater flamingos from the Għadira nature reserve last week, which they insisted were gone following a break-in. The organisation pointed out this was not an isolated incident.

Reacting, St Hubert’s Hunters Association said it deplored the “false propaganda” being spread to an “uninformed public”.

“The quota negotiated with the European Commission for spring derogation… is within the one per cent of the species’ mortality rate contemplated by the Birds Directive and is considered sustainable based on the bird’s conservation status and population figures,” the association said.

The association’s statement assumes every hunter sticks to the quota.

Last spring, the quota translated into half a quail and one turtle dove per hunter.