Taxpayers have forked out around €750,000 to subsidise the spring hunting season since 2013, according to estimates derived from official figures.
The spring hunting seasons of 2013 and 2014 each cost around €250,000, according to figures obtained by The Sunday Times of Malta.
The figures have been released a week before Malta decides the fate of hunting in spring through a referendum.
Each season, over €100,000 in salaries is paid to enforcement officials, as well as a government unit of seven employees dedicated to ensuring a spring hunting season can open.
The law states that seven police officers must be deployed per 1,000 hunters during the open season and at least two officers per 1,000 hunters after hours.
Each bird caught by a hunter cost the taxpayer at least €60
In addition, every year Malta has to justify to the EU why it wants to implement an exemption to laws banning spring hunting – an exercise that costs close to another €100,000. Licences must also be processed for every season, amounting to some €34,000.
Additional costs such as overtime and allowances paid to enforcement officials, salaries of government officials, fuel and maintenance costs for vehicles and equipment, and court and prosecution fees for those caught hunting illegally are not taken into account as they are impossible to quantify accurately.
The Sunday Times of Malta asked the Wild Birds Regulation Unit for a breakdown of costs per season but no reply was received. The WBRU was set up two months after Labour was voted into power on the promise that the government would “guarantee spring hunting”.
The change in government in 2013 also signalled the removal of the spring hunting licence fee (€50 per hunter), meaning the costs of an open season for some 10,000 registered hunters are now entirely borne by taxpayers.
Annual cost is set to increase
The annual cost of a spring hunting season is set to increase from this year since the country is now obliged to conduct another scientific study during the autumn season to justify the next spring season.
This year, taxpayers have already paid €140,000 on this study which is now required because of increasing doubts on the validity of reported catches by hunters that Malta sends to the EU to justify the derogation. The study has already been done in preparation for this year’s spring hunting season if the referendum fails.
In the 2013 spring hunting season, hunters declared catching 3,175 turtle doves and 491 quails. The following spring hunting season, the reported catch was 4,131 turtle doves and 637 quails.
The total for both seasons amounts to 8,434 birds. This means that each bird caught by a hunter cost the taxpayer at least €60.