Your article entitled “Scottish MP takes aim at turtle dove hunting” (TMIS, 7 October) highlights the deceit addressed to the European parliament by anyone who wants to blemish Malta. Also the comment “Along with the quail, the turtle dove is one of the only two bird species that it is legally permissible to hunt”, gives the false impression that only two birds can be legally hunted in Malta.
The turtledove, a bird in decline according to bird protectionists, is indeed facing extinction in the UK. It is a protected species and has never featured in the abundant list of wild birds that can be hunted in the UK. It is, however, hunted profusely in France, apart from in other EU states, and according to data published in the EU Management Plan for the turtledove, http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/conservation/wildbirds/hunting/docs/turtledove.pdf, its numbers in France, which lies directly in the UK migratory path, are increasing. The same increase or stability in numbers is noted in the central European states where this bird is also widely hunted.
It is only in the UK that this bird is facing extinction – undisputedly due to the recognised bad agricultural practices mentioned in the article. In fact, these practices have affected practically all farmland birds in the UK to an embarrassing point that drives some of its MEPs to idiocies.
That a Scottish MEP – or any other bird protectionist’s parrot – tables a question to the European Parliament saying “…a huge number of protected birds are believed to be illegally killed” and “One of the most common birds targeted by hunters is the turtledove…” and asking for action to be taken against Malta, is defamatory and despicable to say the least.
The turtledove, according to the Management Plan, is hunted in Austria, Spain, France, Greece, Italy, Cyprus and Portugal in the autumn, when two to three million birds are reportedly shot. Apart from also being hunted in non-EU states, it is also sustainably hunted in Malta, where the lack of hunting opportunities during the autumn has been addressed by the European Court, thus enabling the use of derogation for the shooting of 11,000 birds during the spring.
By stating “The opening of a spring hunting season in 2013 again disregards the fact that hunting during spring goes against the Commission’s own Hunting Guide”, when the EU Environment Director-General states: “Since the European Court of Justice ruled that spring hunting is permissible, Malta had brought its laws ‘in line’ with European legislation” clearly proves Mr Smith’s ignorance of EU law and his being a waste of the European Parliament’s precious time.
Mr Smith’s parliamentary question is undeniably part of a strategy that, using all forms of deceit and influence, is being instigated by local anti-hunting extremists in their bid to ban spring hunting in Malta. Clearly, these people and those who support them, have no respect for EU law and the derogation thereof.
Mark Mifsud Bonnici
President
Saint Hubert’s Hunters