A hunters’ association which has been at the centre of a controversy following a financing it obtained from the Gozo Ministry to organise an exhibition in State schools is now claiming that educators have shown prejudice against “this part of our culture”.
Organisations such as BirdLife and the Malta Union of Teachers have expressed their disdain at the holding of the exhibition by the Kaccaturi San Ubertu.
In an open letter to the Prime Minister, the association, which claims to have close to 3,000 members, highlighted what it said was “discrimination against an informative and educational exhibition organized by us in schools about the traditional culture of sustainable hunting and live-capture which above all informs about the valuable work of the enthusiast in favour of the environment, what is good and what is bad and reprehensible.”
We received the funds from the Ministry for Gozo after a call for such purpose. Also the Minister of Education approved this initiative after the exhibition material, which we are attaching to this letter, was approved by the Minister of Education, the hunters said.
“The reaction to this exhibition according to public statements by BirdLife Malta, the Malta Union of Teachers (MUT) and other entities clearly show the opposition of educators towards this part of our culture being conveyed to children and that it is being shunned in schools. This fact creates a prejudice and an orchestrated indoctrination in children who ultimately at the age of sixteen are entitled to vote on this culture,” the association contended.
“Such statements confirm without any doubt a clear indication of an institutionalized prejudice in our schools against any form of factual information about hunting and live-capture since Birdlife Malta took over environmental studies in 1994 and that our sector has been complaining about for years,” it told the PM.
“We believe that no one, even more so the educator, has the right to deny factual information or to condition minds according to a stated agenda. We also believe that like any other recognized legal sector, our education system should not discriminate or indoctrinate against our traditional culture of legal and sustainable hunting and live-capture through teaching entrusted to an organization that has a declared anti-hunting agenda.
“The environmental education of our children has for a long time been entrusted to the hands of BirdLife Malta who openly declare their opposition to hunting and live-capture and fail to distinguish or educate between EU endorsed legal and sustainable hunting and those illegal acts that even the sector condemns. This mentality is even reflected in certain exam questions through their environmental program Dinja Wahda in schools .
“This discrimination in schools resulted in years of indoctrination against hunting and live-capture which only resulted in social hatred against our sector and polarity in the Maltese public due to a campaign orchestrated to accommodate the agenda of an anti-hunting organization that now even openly rejects educational and factual information being made available to children.
“As parents and on behalf of other children who are being conditioned to oppose this culture, we appeal to your good sense of judgment and leadership by ensuring that every legal aspect of Maltese culture and tradition, including the culture of -hunt and find will no longer be excluded from our educational system in what is now a biased effort orchestrated to oppose it by those who are supposed to ensure an all inclusive education in our schools.
“We are confident that in this state of affairs, through your intervention, a substantial sector of society that practices or supports this legal and sustainable part of our traditional and sociocultural heritage will be given recognition in schools without the long-existing prejudice.”