Spring hunting is retrograde and cruel and people have a chance to stop it, the Shout campaign said in an event in Valletta yesterday a week before the referendum.

The Shout campaign said this was the first referendum called for by the people after 41,000 Maltese “of different political beliefs” signed a petition to remove a law allowing spring in Malta as an exception to EU rules.

Campaign spokeswoman Moira Delia said everybody was aware of the reality of spring hunting.

“It is horrible, cruel and retrograde. For the sake of our children and our future, it is important to vote No.”

Spokesman Mark Sultana called for a ‘No’ vote to protect birds and allow them to breed during spring. A No vote would mean more birds would breed and fly over Malta and the people would be better able to enjoy the countryside, he said.

It is horrible, cruel and retrograde. It is important to vote No

“We have a conscience. We have a chance to stop this. This is the people’s choice – our chance to make our voice heard,” Mr Sultana said.

Mr Sultana said Malta was currently the only country that permitted the hunting of migrating birds in spring.

“We can promise you one thing – that if spring hunting is banned we will see more birds living and breeding on this island,” he said.

Spokesman Saviour Balzan insisted that the referendum would not affect other pastimes, contrary to claims made by the hunters’ lobby. This is a point prominent lawyers, including former European Court of Human Rights Judge Giovanni Bonello, have stressed at the start of the campaign.

Shout campaigner Moira Delia addressing yesterday’s press conference. Photo: Jason Borg

Meanwhile, the Yes campaign yesterday claimed that an NGO supporting the campaign for the abolition of spring hunting of cutting and pruning protected indigenous trees in breach of environmental laws.

‘Yes’ campaign spokesman Darren Caruana said that a number of mature carob trees at the Gaia Foundation reserve in Għajn Tuffieħa had been “butchered”.

Addressing a news conference outside the reserve entrance, he said the hunting lobby would present photographic evidence and wait for the planning authority to take action.

“It is quite ironic that the same people who are mounting a negative campaign to depict hunters as the main perpetrators of environmental abuse, do such things themselves,” Mr Caruana said. He also questioned whether it made sense to grant EU funds to the Gaia Foundation, if this was the kind of work it was carrying out.

Challenged by this newspaper to corroborate his claims, the Yes spokesman pointed to a mature carob tree just inside the reserve that had had some of its branches sawn off.

He insisted that this pruning had been carried out haphazardly and not according to established procedures. In response the Gaia Foundation called the hunting lobby’s claims “a blatant distortion of facts and cheap and desperate mudslinging against a No to spring hunting coalition partner just a week before the referendum”.

The Gaia Foundation said the pruning of trees was carried out with the necessary Mepa permits in accordance with the law.

It said pruning in this case was necessary in order to prevent the carob tree from damaging and destroying protected the Sandarac gum tree, Malta’s national tree, situated under the carob branches.