I was last Thursday in a field situated on the way to Buskett. It was about 9am and I was helping a friend in his field work. Every few minutes the quiet of the rural surroundings was rudely disturbed by a cacophony of hunters’ shots. I could see the birds they were shooting at, mlievez I was told they were.

At first I was disgusted at the wanton killing. But my disgust soon turned to humour when I came to realise that every single bird the hunters shot at was in fact still in the sky, obviously sharply disturbed, as could be seen from the erratic flight it was making after the shots, but quite alive and thriving. I wonder, did the birds cock a snook at the hapless target shooters?

What is all the fuss about that environmentalists have been making? Our hunters are novices, or blind, or plain incompetent – they cannot hit their target! Maybe they are fooled into buying blank shots! Perhaps all this hullaballoo against hunters is because of the noise that the gunshots make.

People hear a shot, and in their wild imagination see a bloodied bird. BirdLife, and the likes of Daphne Caruana Galizia, who write so strongly against hunters, must be smirking to themselves at having fooled the Maltese authorities and so-called nature lovers, who relish their Sunday roast, into believing there is slaughter going on during the hunting season.

From what I saw that Thursday it was more likely for me in the field to be hit by the falling pellets, than for the birds to be killed in the sky.

What suckers the Maltese and their political leaders are! The herd instinct rules.

C. Galea

Rabat