Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/278185
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 16 MARCH 2014 Opinion 23 Download the MaltaToday App now endangerment. Both European turtle dove and European quail are rated as 'vulnerable' and 'in decline' in the European conservation status index. And please note that I emphasise 'European' so much in that sentence because the birds shot in Malta are on their way to breed in Europe… making these the statistics most relevant to the issue of spring hunting in Malta. And yet, the data furnished to the Ornis Committee – compiled by the hunters, naturally – refers to a global conservation index (the IUCN list) for both species… in which they enjoy a 'favourable' status rating. Personally I am delighted to hear that such marvellous birds enjoy no threat of extinction on a global level. But that takes into consideration Asian, African and American populations… which are not in any way affected by hunting in Malta. Ornis was aware of this situation when it gave the go ahead to hunt two vulnerable European species of bird during this year's breeding season. Its reasons cannot possibly have been based on any of the information that actually matters. This brings me to the composition of Ornis, which, as mentioned earlier, is heavily weighted in favour of government appointees. Government is bound by an electoral pledge to permit spring hunting, and has made it abundantly clear that it doesn't give a tawny owl 's hoot about birds, and even less about scientific mumbo jumbo and conservation gobbledygook. And its representatives on the committee owe their allegiance to government, not to Mother Nature. From this perspective, one wonders why they even bother keeping up the pretence of a decision taken afresh each year. They may as well just scrap the committee altogether, and simply announce that spring hunting will take place from now to eternit y, regardless if there are any birds left to shoot. (The hunters can always find something else to compensate, if that famous scene from the Fantozzi movies is anything to go by). This is not a serious, credible way to take sensitive decisions on issues that affect other populations beside that of turtle dove and quail… or for that matter that of hunters, or even of the Maltese people as a whole. Those are European birds, remember? They breed in other countries, and if their decline escalates any further as a result of the Ornis Committee's decision – and these things are monitored, you know – the responsibilit y will be partly ours. Faced with all this, I can't say I even blame Cyrus Engerer for playing his own predictable part in the unending courtship ritual between hunters and politicians. Besides, like all the other suitors he would have made his own calculations, and concluded that the votes gained from the initiative would outnumber the votes lost by an order of magnitude. Going on past elections, his arithmetic is entirely correct, too. Sticking up for hunters earns votes; sticking up for the rest of the country costs elections. This is how it has always panned out over the past 20 years; and I have not seen any indication that this election may be any different. So at the end of the next May, we will have six EP representatives (unless, to be fair, AD elects a candidate) who will be likewise committed to furthering the cause of some 12,000 hunters and their extended clans, while completely overlooking the remaining 99% of the country. This is why I can only conclude that the hunters have all along played their cards well, while the rest of us have made a pipit's breakfast of ours. Threatening politicians has a long history of success in this country; and on an issue as important as this, it is only fair that two get to play at that game. So a final bird – I mean, word – to all prospective MEP candidates of all feathers. Unless taking a firm stand against spring hunting features prominently on your to-do-list in Brussels, please don't bother issuing any mating calls under my window. Gracias. In their eagerness to accommodate hunters in all things, both political parties would be perfectly willing to move not only mountains, but also the entire solar system In their eagerness to accommodate hunters in all things, both political parties would be perfectly willing to move not only mountains, but also the entire solar system