We are Italians who have been living in Gharb since 2002 and own a few apartments, which we rent out to tourists.

Ever since the beginning, we had to face the daily problem of putting up with the massive presence of hunters. Clients and ourselves are woken up at dawn by repeated shooting. Dead birds are found in the pool and pellets fall on guests sunbathing in the pool area, who make their complaints and promise never to come back to Gozo again.

But that’s nothing compared with the scenes we have seen several times from our windows, when “incorrect” hunters shot and killed protected birds (large birds of prey, herons and so on.) with even more ferocity. Now, that the hunting season is over, every night we see arrogant poachers in search of rabbits – we presume – with lights and hear them shooting from their pick-ups.

We often call the police, who do their best, but when they arrive it is too late. We started, ingenuously, to yell at them to stop and the result is very clearly visible in the pictures we took of our two cars this morning.

We are aware that the “hunters lobby” is much too strong and they frighten politicians. They are not people who care for nature and the future of a country we love like our own.

It is a very complicated problem to deal with, nevertheless there are many solutions: it is enough to start with a small step.

We are really tired of this situation, but alone we can do very little, as these acts are a form of terrorism.

Marco Lambrocchi

Foresteria Ogygia