The German-based Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) on Monday announced that it would be hiring professional security guards from Malta to assist in autumn operations to monitor illegal hunting and trapping.

The Federation for Hunters and Trappers, meanwhile, said that CABS had the prerogative to do as it liked. The first issue which was raised by this newspaper with CABS was whether or not the security guards would be armed. It turns out that they will not be – this would be in violation of the law. CABS says that it wants to use the security guards to ensure the safety of its staff, which it claims were assaulted last year by hunters and trappers. The FKNK said that such a claim was unfair because the perpetrators were never identified. CABS also said that the security guards would also come in handy to facilitate communication with hunters and trappers who are out and about.

With this, we would have to agree. The videos shot last year with hunters and CABS staff being lost in translation, were evidence enough to see that one side could not understand the other and tempers soon frayed.

But we will have to ask… will the introduction of these security guards create more tension? It was clear last year that hunters and trappers do not take kindly to people ‘trespassing’ on ‘their’ hunting grounds. The Maltese people know this well enough. How many illegal ‘RTO’ signs are there daubed on traditional rubble walls? How many times have ramblers and picnic parties been told to clear off because they are scaring away the birds. All too often is the answer.

This attitude flared up quite nastily when CABS members were here last year with all sorts of insults (and rocks) being hurled at people and equipment belonging to CABS staff. All this happened when CABS members were at various sites with just a camera. One can only imagine the reaction to Maltese security guards ‘protecting’ these people as they watch what hunters do.

The best given solution would be to assign members of the Administrative Law Enforcement Unit to shadow the CABS patrols, to ensure that there are no flare ups. The ALE would also be able to monitor exactly what is happening and would be able to ascertain whether hunters and trappers, or indeed CABS staff, break the law in any way.

A police presence would solve the issue and hopefully prevent confrontation and provocation from either side. Both sides have accused each other of being provocative in the past, and we are quite convinced that this is the case on either side.

What is certain is that one side which is hell bent on hunting birds, and another side hell bent on stopping it, will never manage to be civil to each other. Perhaps, as we mentioned in yesterday’s leading article, the setting up of a Wildlife Crime Unit could bridge the gap. If this unit were to be given legal status with legal powers, it would have every interest to monitor events such as autumn hunting and CABS’ autumn operations in Malta. If Malta were to follow the lead of other countries and, first of all set such a unit up, and secondly kit them out in a uniform different to that of police, then there might just be an actual, viable go-between. In hiring security guards CABS say they want protection. Hunters will merely see it as more provocation.