The government said today that it did not want to see taxpayers' money being used to pay fines for hunting.
Reacting to a press conference by the hunters' federation, which made a final appeal for the reopening of spring hunting from tomorrow till the end of the month, with higher bag limits than set by the government, the government said it had decided to restrict hunting to a week so that what was won through the decision of the European Court last September would not be lost.
"Should the government follow the advice of the FKNK, the hunters would be worse off since they would face a major risk of losing what was achieved in September.
"Furthermore, the country would lose, since it would end up before the European Court once more, and it would face heavy fines which would have to be paid from taxpayers' money," the government said.
See also:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100419/local/hunters-ultimatum-to-the-pm