The hunters are an embarrassment to Malta. Like a batty member of the family who belches and scratches his private parts in public, and generally lets the rest of the family down, hunters are disgracing Malta by their behaviour.

In an excellent leader by the Times of Malta a few months ago (“Hunters: A National Embarrassment”), commenting on the demand by the Federation for Hunting and Conservation (FKNK) that the political parties should commit themselves to a system that would stop foreigners roaming the Maltese countryside “as they please”, the absurdity, illegality under EU law, as well as the impracticability of the demand was fully exposed to the ridicule it deserved.

Reports about the indiscipline of hunters during the recent spring hunting season have been rife. There is no reason to doubt their credibility as they fit in with a long-established pattern of Maltese hunters' behaviour stretching back centuries, as even a cursory reading of Natalino Fenech's comprehensive “A Complete Guide to the Birds of Malta” readily attests.

Past experience impels absolute credence in the recent reports by Birdlife and the Campaign Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) about the illegalities committed this spring hunting season just ended. The sanitised 'official' statistics published by the police should be taken with a large pinch of salt. Hundreds of offences against nature protection and hunting legislation were undoubtedly committed, including the shooting of protected birds of prey, herons and cuckoos, bird trapping with mist nets, clap nets and cage traps, the illegal use of electronic decoy devices, hunting with automatic weapons, and hunting on main roads and in other public areas. Almost 500 breaches of the afternoon and Sunday curfew were also recorded. Moreover, the shooting goes on today - over a week since the end of the hunting season.

To make matters worse, the inaptly named Parliamentary Secretary for Animal Rights (sic), is boasting of having found a “crack” in the EU Birds Directive which would enable the government to present its proposals for the EU to grant Malta a derogation for bird trapping in the autumn, including “possibly” for protected species like finches. This would fly in the face of an agreement reached with the EU to phase out this practice. Although the minister tried to row back from this statement by saying that “whatever we negotiate on trapping will be following all EU laws and regulations”, it is quite clear that every effort is being made to placate the hunters.

In doing so, the minister and his government, are losing sight of the bigger picture in which three issues loom large. First, public opinion is overwhelmingly against hunting and hunters. Secondly, the European Commission, which is starkly aware of public opinion on this matter not just in Malta but throughout Europe, is closely monitoring the situation and will not hesitate to arraign the country before the European Court of Justice again if it trangresses. Thirdly, Malta's international reputation, already low in this field, will come back to bite it economically.

Increasingly, visitors from Northern Europe, our main sources for tourism, are deciding to stay away in protest. In this internet and social media age, every killing of a protected bird, every act of aggression and xenophobia by hunters is noted and shared. The Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association has already rightly sounded the alarm bells.   

Hunters are a minority in Malta's society. Given a chance to express their view in a referendum, Maltese people would as soon have hunting banned. Like me, thousands of Maltese regard it as a vile and uncivilised sport. Spring hunting in Malta means that birds returning, hungry and exhausted, to their breeding grounds are being shot, thus endangering the species' long-term sustainability – an issue that affects not just Malta, but the whole of Europe.

Nevertheless, like all minorities in a democracy, hunters deserve to be given every freedom within the law to be allowed to practice their sport. Moreover, hunters wield political influence beyond what their size of about ten thousand members would imply because they tend to vote as a block and this could affect the outcome of an election.

There are therefore practical political reasons, as well as minority rights issues, for seeking a solution to the curse and embarrassment of Malta's hunting. The solution lies in two fields. First, better management of hunting strictly in line with the letter and the spirit (no seeking of technical loopholes) of the EU Birds Directive. And second, unrelenting application of the law against illegal hunting and trapping.

Better management of hunting is the pre-condition for success. This means recognising that hunters as a proportion of the population constitute only one fortieth of those Maltese who wish to enjoy Malta's increasingly scarce countryside (not including visitors). Malta's and Gozo's combined total of agricultural and dry open land (garigue, coastal and cliffs) amounts to about 200 square kilometres. A proportional split in allocation of land would therefore give the hunters about 5 square kilometres for their own hunting use, with the balance of about 195 square kilometres for the rest of the population.

I recognise of course that allowing hunters just 5 square kilometres is not workable. But the figures not only highlight the problem of the incompatibility in such a tiny island of hunting and nature walks, but also give a possible clue to the introduction of a proper management regime. If hunters were given their own hunting and trapping areas – say, as an opening gambit, 15 square kilometres in Malta and Gozo – for their own exclusive use during the spring and autumn seasons only, this would have four overriding benefits.

First, effective policing and control of hunting would be possible. Even Malta's currently limited law enforcement resources could cope with illegal hunting or trapping in these restricted areas. Secondly, hunting within these areas could be properly regulated by the hunters themselves. The chance of sustainable game-shooting under the hunting federation's own auspices would increase. This would be the test of their much-vaunted “conservation” credentials. Third, it would allow diverse bird species to be enjoyed elsewhere in the Maltese Islands by bird-watchers from all over the world without fear or hindrance. And fourth, those who wish to enjoy the beauty of the Maltese countryside would be free to do so outside the designated hunting areas throughout the year without being confronted by threatening men in combat kit carrying guns. 

In all equity, hunters should be allowed to practice their nauseous “sport”. But they should do so in space allocated in direct proportion to their numbers so that the majority of the population can enjoy the rest of the Island in proportion to theirs. Hunters should be restricted to designated game-shooting areas in Malta and Gozo, and corralled there accordingly during the hunting season.