I am not one to shy away from controversial topics, but this was one that I always vowed to steer clear of. Due to the fact that those involved have a variety of lethal weapons, are prone to sending death threats, and have a love of shooting living creatures, I reasoned that it was probably not the best idea to poke these individuals with my pen, but now I have changed my mind: enough is enough.

First of all, I would like to address one of the inevitable battle cries of these individuals: “Go back to your own country” closely followed by “what about hunting in your own country”. Firstly, no, I will not go back to my own country.Having spent my adult life in Malta, I have every right to say what I think, and furthermore, I have been given a public platform to do so. Secondly, I do worry about hunting in my own country; hunting foxes and deer is mostly illegal, and only allowed under certain circumstances- and yes people do shoot beautiful protected birds out of the sky for fun, but this is not a particularly common occurrence. But drawing your attention once again to point 1; the UK has not been my home for over a decade and is unlikely to be ever again, therefore what goes on there is of little interest to me.

Now back to the matter at hand.

A couple of weeks ago, some beautiful white storks arrived in sunny Malta. This majestic and wonderful creature breeds in the warmer parts of Europe and North Africa and they typically migrate to Sub-Saharan Africa to avoid the cooler, winter months. Their arrival in Malta was something wonderful; it made the news, people shared the stories excitedly on social media, and birdwatchers quite literally twitched at the hope of getting a picture of these beautiful beasts. Unfortunately, this elation over a welcomed visitor was not to be long-lived.

These storks were picked off one by one despite calls from the public and reassurances from law enforcement that they would be protected. With the last poor bird missing, presumed dead, this is a real moment of shame for the country and those that should have been protecting these animals. But what about those responsible?

I have heard absolutely nothing of substance from any government figure, department, authority, or law enforcement official. Both the PL and the PN have been deafening in their silence because they know that speaking out against hunting will cost them votes, regardless of whether what happened is a heinous crime against nature, not just Malta.

Time and time again, hunters have been warned, negotiated with, and kindly asked to stick to the rules. Time and time again, they have failed to do so. They shoot what they want, when they want. They wilfully ignore rules, laws, and regulations, and they do so with total impunity. They send death threats to anyone that opposes them, they harass activists, and they think they have the right to break the law and shoot wildlife out of the sky that is not even native to this country.

But there are other things that concern me about this situation.Apart from the fact that they are breaking the law and getting away with it; apart from the fact they are allowed to threaten and abuse members of the public as and when they wish with no consequences and apart from the fact that it is morally wrong to shoot such animals for fun, have we stopped to consider what kind of people are doing these things and are also given firearms? As far as I am concerned, it is like giving a grenade to a toddler; people who behave in this way should not be in possession of deadly weapons.

There are many studies out there about the types of people that trophy hunt; psychopaths, sociopaths, serial killers, domestic abuse perpetrators, narcissists, individuals with inferiority complexes – the list goes on. There is such a wealth of information out there about those that kill for fun, kill for sport, and engage in trophy hunting, and the similarities and overlaps between personality traits of hunters and violent criminals are staggering. Of course, I am not saying that all hunters are sociopathic, women-beating, serial killers, but rather I am pointing out that there many similarities in behaviour which should be a big cause for concern.

The point is that all of the above are violent individuals and killers; it is just the species of their prey that differs. The enthusiasm and glee that comes as they take a life to fill their own selfish desires is enough to make your blood run cold and their carefully planned killing sprees are executed with precision and planning, without showing any sign of stopping.

Whether you agree with hunting or not is irrelevant, my biggest concern is the motivations of the individuals that their lives revolves around, taking the life of something less powerful and more defenceless than them. This is something that should concern us greatly and that we should be paying particular attention to, not just the issue of the senseless murder of a beautiful wild animal.

I am not a stork (obviously), I am not a politician scared of losing votes, and I am certainly not scared to stand up and say that the time has come to ban this barbaric sport, and furthermore to take weapons out of the hands of people that very clearly cannot be trusted to use them.