The national spring hunting debate sparked by the impending referendum is being keenly followed by foreign hunting firms who have been quick to submit adverts on Facebook promoting “low prices for bird hunting”.

A number of Maltese Facebook users have noticed that ever since the April 11 referendum was announced, the advertising panel on the right-hand side of Facebook’s page has included adverts about bird hunting for pheasants, ducks, quail and geese.

“These foreign companies are very astute – they realised that such a debate was going on in Malta and decided to target local users with adverts offering their service,” digital media researcher Martin Debattista told Times of Malta.

People involved in hunting tourism would be up to date on what was going on in other countries, he said.

Read more on Times of Malta.