Louise Manduca Morley, whom I know as a great lover of cats, takes hunters to task for “blasting birds out of the sky” in what she interprets as a “cruel mentality” (October 18).

Agreeing with Maurice Mizzi (October 16), who depicts birds as the hunter’s foe, she too questions why hunters should be depriving her “of these beautiful intelligent creatures for the sheer fun of it”.

When presented with facts about the hunting instincts of cats, most of which is carried out purely for fun, does Manduca Morley question her cats’ “cruel mentality” that definitely deprives her and all others of beautiful intelligent birds, apart from many other creatures?

Cats in the UK, according to the British Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (since statistics for Malta are unavailable), “catch up to 275 million prey items a year, of which 55 million are birds” and, yet, Ms Manduca Morley, who has no qualms about criticising hunters, adores her feline friends.

Unfortunately for many who have lost their natural hunting instinct and question the intelligence of hunters, only birds flying freely seem to matter.

Obviously conditioned to procuring meat, which has been slaughtered for their convenience, from supermarket shelves, they no longer consider those confined animals they consume as “beautiful intelligent creatures” or criticise the mentality of whoever slaughters them and also gladly accept the actions of their pets.

Indeed, the whole matter revolves around the ignorance of some with regard to why people hunt. No less than Ms Manduca Morley’s cats, though in a perfectly legal and sustainable manner, hunters hunt due to their natural instinct being perfectly normal. The game they hunt is all consumed and is considered as being a culinary delight by many.

Trying to negate certain members of society from exercising their hunting instincts by blaming it on their intelligence, as Mr Mizzi does, or blaming hunters for depriving some people of “beautiful intelligent creatures” only proves that the level of intelligence in some humans ends when food is prepared in plastic bags or vacuum-sealed tins. How sad.