Deeming the enforcement measures to be implemented in amendments to Malta’s hunting and trapping regulations as announced by Rural Affairs and Environment Minister George Pullicino on Monday evening as “unacceptable”, the Federazzjoni Kaccaturi Nassaba Konservazzjonisti (FKNK) is to hold a protest outside Parliament on Wednesday.

The protest will go ahead if the amendments to Legal Notice 79/06 regulating hunting and trapping activities are not based on the advice and proposals FKNK and government experts had delivered to the Ornis Committee.

The FKNK is also demanding a longer spring-hunting season than that proposed to the ministry by the Ornis Committee on Monday.

Among the demands being made by the federation is that the trapping season for the seven identified species of song birds opens in March and that the hunting at sea of ducks and other waterfowl be held between the first and second moons of March.

The FKNK is also demanding that the open spring season on turtledoves and quail be increased to two months starting on 20 March.

The Ornis Committee on Monday recommended the opening of the season on quail from 1 April to 10 May, while the season for turtledoves has been recommended to open on 10 April and to close on 20 May. The dates, however, are not set in stone until the amended legal notice is published.

No public mention, however, was made by the minister in relation to the dates for trapping, or hunting at sea.

Speaking yesterday, FKNK president Joe Buttigieg said the federation would not accept the new fines and penalties as announced by Mr Pullicino on Monday, commenting that “exaggerated” measures such as a Lm6,000 fine, mandatory prison sentences and the permanent revocation of hunting and firearms licences are wholly unjust when such penalties and fines are not even contemplated for more serious criminal offences.

“It is not right that hunters and trappers are treated like criminals in this democratic country,” he said.

He also observed how the minister had said the FKNK had been in agreement with the new penalties and fines. While the federation agrees with proper enforcement, the new regulations were simply too much, Mr Buttigieg said.

According to the new schedules of fines, however, the stiffer penalties, including prison sentences, are applicable only to repeat offenders.

First-time offenders have had the fines applicable to them doubled, while the suspension of hunting and firearms licences are called for in the case of first-time regulation violators.

On the second conviction, fines rise to between Lm200 and Lm4,000 and a penalty of between a two-month and two-year prison sentence, as well as the permanent revocation of the licences, would be enforced.

Those caught hunting after their licences have been revoked, meanwhile, would face fines of between Lm3,000 and Lm6,000 and prison sentence of between one and two years.

Mr Buttigieg’s announcement of Wednesday’s protest was greeted with rapturous applause from the hunters gathered for the conference, but Mr Buttigieg appealed for a peaceful protest to “show our disapproval” of the new measures.

Yesterday morning, Joe Perici Calascione explained, the federation filed a total of three libel cases against MaltaToday editor Saviour Balzan, Illum editor Kurt Sansone and another against lawyer Wenzu Mintoff in light of “different cases of defamation and even lies” in newspapers and on the radio.

Mr Perici Calascione added that the FKNK’s website forum, the subject of recent controversy over allegedly threatening messages posted, will come out of temporary suspension and will be put back online this evening – an announcement that was also greeted with enthusiastic applause.

He questioned journalists present why, when news reports of threats posted by hunters on the forum had urged the police to take action, similar threats against hunters posted on the forum had not made the headlines.

Referring to the government’s “political mandate” to allow for sustainable hunting granted to the government by the people, which was also cited by Mr Pullicino on Monday, Mr Buttigieg explained how the retention of spring hunting in Malta had never been off the cards.

He cited several Malta-EU Information Centre notices published in the run-up to the EU accession which confirmed that spring hunting would be retained after accession, and that the EU had confirmed it had agreed on the position of retaining spring hunting.

The Malta Labour Party, in a statement issued yesterday evening, observed that, through the new amendments, the government was playing off both the hunters and the environmentalists – adding that the decision was no more than delaying tactics that are to be employed until after the coming general election.

The stance, the MLP added, is hypocritical in that the government was ready to break EU regulations until the next elections without taking into consideration the consequences of its actions.