The hunters’ and trappers’ federation, FKNK criticised BirdLife Malta of making wild accusations and of being dishonest, saying this had been proved by the Police Commissioner.

The commissioner, the FKNK said, denied a claim by BirdLife that no police action had been taken on BirdLife’s complaints against comments posted on FKNK’s website and gave a detailed statement of all the investigations undertaken, proving the opposite of what BirdLife was contending.

It added that the fact that the president of BirdLife needed police protection was partly due to the tactics BirdLife, apparently on the advice of its “salaried master”, has adopted in its “unnecessary confrontation with the hunters”.

The FKNK said BirdLife persisted with its falsehoods and constantly acted against the spirit of the agreement signed in October 2004 by BirdLife International and the Federation of Associations for Hunting and Conservation in the EU (FACE).

The Maltese taxpayer is being forced to pay for police protection for BirdLife officials just because these people are themselves intolerant of others and think of every opportunity to provoke hunters and trappers, FKNK said. It was a great pity that the Rural Affairs and the Environment Minister had failed to check their self-righteous arrogance.