Malta and its hunters - a stain on European civilisation
By Charlie • April 21, 2007 • 4 commentsIt’s spring - at last - and migratory birds are returning from their winter quarters: and once again the thugs of the Maltese hunting community are out in force to meet the ones unfortunate enough to overfly the most notorious and shameful territory in Europe.
Unrestrained by legislation (the EU Birds Directive), public opinion, or any sense of morality the little men of Malta are right now bravely smashing tired birds out of the air with their guns. Just as they have done for years gangs of morons are slaughtering future generations of Europe’s birds by removing the adults before they’ve even had a chance to breed.
How utterly stupid must they be? How empty of conscience, intelligence, or maturity do you have to be to think it fun to blow a creature weighing a few ounces into pieces as it heads to its breeding grounds? How unsporting, how uncivilised, how utterly deserving of contempt? How typical of Malta’s hunters…
Thankfully some writers with a rather larger reach than this blog feel the same way: here’s what Simon Barnes wrote in today’s Times (at www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/simon_barnes/article1652409.ece
“If you have the privilege of joining an organisation that will give you substantial economic benefits in exchange for certain concessions, the thing to do is to take the money and then stick two fingers up at the world. That is the policy adopted by Malta since it joined the European Union. This week, the spring hunting season began on Malta. Again. As it has done every spring since Malta joined the EU in 2004. The Maltese are off on their annual killing binge in direct defiance of the Europe Birds Directive. The main thrust of the hunt is against turtle doves and quails: birds on migration from Africa to Europe. Migrating birds funnel together over the pinprick of Malta: and so the Maltese let rip at them. These are not Maltese birds: they are birds using Malta as a stepping-stone. These are birds that belong to all Europe. They are our birds. They are birds that should be brightening our spring. These are the turtle doves whose gentle turr-turring should be adding a mellow voice to the English chorus. But instead, they are being blasted to bits. This is Malta’s fourth consecutive breach of the directive. The defiance is flagrant and unapologetic: and Malta should be kicked out of the EU for its intransigence. There is legal action by the European Commission against Malta, and it began last year. The case is expected to be heard later this year. But the legal hunt is only one part of it: illegal shooting carries on utterly unpoliced. Any species that appears in front of the gun-barrels is mown down. A purple heron and a pallid harrier were found shot last week before the hunting season even opened. Birdlife International is doing a hefty job on the political front, but Malta is having its cake and eating it: reaping the EU benefits while carrying on with its tradition of ancient barbarities.
The name of Malta stinks across Europe: but does that really matter to the Maltese?” |
If you’ve ever wondered why the flotsam of Maltese society think they’re above the law then have a quick read of http://mic.org.mt/EUINFO/sector/sections/fse_hunters_trappers.htm - in which their cruelty and stupidity is repeatedly described as “a hobby” (sort of like stamp-collecting only with far more blood?).
Any suggestions that the new regulations might impact on them are waved away with the nudge and wink re-assurance that “Enforcement is in the hands of the local authorities”. According to a press-release from BirdLife Malta: “Presently, the Administrative Law Enforcement unit is equipped with a mere 27 officers in Malta and Gozo. The figures for licensed hunters and trappers for 2004 indicate that there are more than 16,000 licensed hunters and trappers. This means that there is only 1 officer for approximately 600 hunters and trappers”. That’s okay then, eh boys?
The territories pathetic trappers (who Malta managed to have exempted from EU legislation on the ludicrous grounds that trapping is “an old tradition that has evolved according to the special circumstances of Malta” - the special circumstances perhaps being that they’re too uncivilised to ever have to join the 21st century? - are also re-assured that trapping will continue as normal because it’s - QUOTE- “necessary to sustain the genetic diversity of birds in captivity”. Because the genetic diversity of CAPTIVE birds is what REALLY matters of course…
Surely though a few brain-dead Maltese with guns popping off at a few migrants isn’t all that bad, someone reading this might ask?
Oh, yes, it really is THAT bad. An April 07 2007 update on BirdLife’s website quotes the following:
[http://www.birdlife.org/news/news/2007/04/malta_hunting_start.html] This year – before the official opening of the season- the BirdLife Partner in Malta has already received reports of illegal shooting:
“Declining or endangered species continue to be shot illegally on a regular basis. Only last week a Pallid Harrier and a Purple Heron were found shot,†said Joseph Mangion, President of BirdLife Malta. “With the European population of Pallid Harriers down to only a handful of birds, the actions of a single Maltese hunter could impact dramatically on the future of this species. This scenario is repeated for a wide range of threatened birds that are shot illegally on a regular basis here in Malta.†|
So what can we do? We can spread this information far and wide. We can support or promote the work done by BirdLife Malta (email them at office@birdlifemalta.org to find out what we can do to help). We can write to the EU to protest, and we can phone/email the Maltese Tourism Office and tell them why you won’t be funding the hunting season by spending your money on their god-forsaken islands:
Malta Tourism Authority
Auberge D’Italie
Merchants Street
Valletta VLT 1170
Malta
Tel: (+356) 22915000
Fax: (+356) 22915394
Email: info@visitmalta.com
Website: www.visitmalta.com
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Hello Charlie, as a Maltese national and resident concerned about the deplorable hunting situation in Malta, I decided to read your article.
But after reading a few sentences of your lumping approximately 393,000 Maltese men, women and children in the same boat as approximately 7,000 Maltese blood thirsty lunatics [I for one will never understand the fun to be had in brutally killing birds and animals of any kind], I began to be put off. After catching sight [because after being put off, I could only make myself skim through your article] of your racially prejudiced and hateful comments about the entire Maltese nation, suffice to say I was disgusted.
If you really want to know why no-one has done anything about our hunters, it’s because our dear politicians are too terrified of losing 7,000 votes in a political system where supposedly every vote counts. Protesting locally against hunting in Malta would undoubtedly result in vandalism or animosity from the local hunters - assuming of course that the average Maltese person could even manage to find time to attend such a protest in the first place.
You might be interested to know that the Maltese government finally handed the matter of Spring hunting over to the European Court of Justice some time ago.
I for one would appreciate if you removed or altered certain phrases, whether quoting another person or not, from your article. Contrary to what you and it seems Simon Barnes would have the world believe, Malta is not inhabited by 400,000 heartless, sadistic idiots who deserve to be shut out of Europe for massacring the world’s migratory bird population.
You don’t have to believe a word I say, but of course, sitting over there at the other end of Europe advocating the isolation and emargination of the tiny insignifican Maltese islands, you’ll never find out if I’m telling the truth or not.
Would you like to repeat your assertion that I am racially prejudiced in a court of law? I doubt it, because there’s nothing in any article I’ve ever written that is racially prejudiced in any way. Anti-hunting, yes. Anti-moron, yes. But racially prejudiced - never. Grow up and accept the fact that the rest of Europe’s conservationists look on your hunting community with absolute distaste and revulsion - and fail to understand how so many of the rest of the population - who often state their disgust with the hunters - refuse to stand up to these thugs. And patronising me will do nothing to alter my (well-researched) beliefs. And contrary to your assertion that the Maltese Government “handed the matter of Spring hunting over to the European Court of Justice some time ago” they were actually forced to the Courts because of their blatant disregard for legislation protecting wild birds that they’d agreed to on accession to the EU.
No, I would not like to repeat what I accused you of in my previous comment under legal, or any, circumstances, because after re-reading your article I seem to have made a mistake and misread - or mis-skimmed really - your article. I withdraw anything about racial prejudice, and I apologise.
Regarding why the majority of the Maltese don’t do anything about the hunters, I have to say that it’s not a question of refusing to stand up to them. For some reason they take extreme offense when anyone, Maltese or foreign, openly repulses their ‘hobby’. The difference between foreigners living abroad or just visiting Malta, and the Maltese, is that we live on the same islands as the hunters. As you can see from the torching of the Birdlife members and volunteer’s cars, they’re very touchy about anyone who actively disagrees with them. Worst of all, they actually have something up their sleeve this Spring concerning Birdlife, as they’ve hinted at on their online forum.
Displeasing these people yields violent and unpleasant results towards humans and animals alike, imagine what they would do if we openly and actively worked against their pass-time. Moreover, when they do something illegal, the authorities seem to take it into half-hearted consideration. Most people prefer to keep quiet rather than instigate the wrath of sadistic men with guns.
And once again you’re perfectly correct, the Maltese government was forced to go to the Courts because of their repeated failure to follow and implement legislation. The majority of Maltese were delighted when that news was announced, although having spoken to Birdlife volunteers I personally think we’re in for hunting-related violence come Spring. Whether the authorities - whichever party it might be - will take legal action against anyone caught breaking the EU birds directive is another matter.
Hi Charlie,
its sometimes worser you can imagine but hopefully at te same time. 380.000 people conemn poaching. But these 20.000 poachers belongs into a mental home….
Lippi