The recent news that a flock of eagles has been partially decimated by hunters in Malta and Gozo has prompted me to write this piece and has put all hunters in the dock: not the court dock but the dock of public opinion.

In a way it has put the government in the same dock, too. It was this government that extended the hunting times during the autumn hunting season to 7 pm instead of 3 pm. Prior to the election it also gave the impression that, if elected, it was going to ease hunting regulations. This sent the wrong message to hunters and gave the impression that hunting rules were being relaxed. The Parliamentary Secretary for Animal Rights (!) even went so far as to declare that he fhad found a loophole in the law and so was trying to use this to the hunters’ benefit. I would have thought that, being in charge of animal rights, he would have sought ways of closing the loophole, not opening it further. Ultimately, however, the final responsibility rests with the hunters and their organisations.

Public opinion is already strongly against the hunting fraternity and we are all aware that signatures are being collected to bring about a referendum on whether to abrogate the spring hunting season. Malta is a democratic country and if a referendum to abolish spring hunting is on the books, and if the Maltese people vote spring hunting off the statute rolls, then there will be nothing else to be done and everybody has to respect that decision! In that case, hunters will have nobody to blame but themselves! Birds are not the property of hunters. They are not a res nullius, they do not belong to the first person who happens to come along and claim them as his by blowing them to bits. Birds, like all wildlife and nature, belong to the common heritage of mankind the res communis and the res communis omnium. In Malta, all the Maltese people have the right to enjoy nature and its animals without them being blown out of the sky or to smithereens. What is sure is that we cannot go on like this. We have a situation where protected species such as flamingoes, storks, falcons, song birds and eagles cannot be enjoyed by the man in the street and the nature lover, as they are destroyed the minute they fly in and claimed as personal (dead) property.

It is time to move on and change our mentality. Things we may have done in the past may now no longer be sustainable today, given the state of the environmental and natural degeneration that man is causing the planet and our natural habitat. I appreciate the efforts that hunters’ organisations are making to rein in illegal hunters and the hunting of protected species. However, it seems that this is not being successful and it may be that it is not possible with current legislation. This would mean that the legislation has failed as a way of controlling hunting abuse and that new legislation may be called for. The government is now saying that new legislation is being put in place and a zero tolerance policy is to be pursued. However, I doubt that this alone will be successful. What is called for is the education and instilling of a new public mentality and this cannot be done with legislation alone. The European Commission may also decide to take matters into its own hands and that would be that! Political parties need to stop allowing hunting lobbies to play one party off against the other, only to find themselves squarely cornered when in government and having to deliver substance.

I have always believed in allowing hunters to enjoy a responsible spring hunting option. Today, however, I am starting to have second doubts as I observe the massacre of God’s creatures around me as a blood sport and the denial of the enjoyment of these magnificent creatures by the population at large. Whether I continue to hold this position or not in the future depends completely on the hunters’ behaviour in the coming months!

[email protected]