Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/302202
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 27 APRIL 2014 5 denigrate the public relations effort of conservationists from the UK. "Publicity-seeking efforts of indi- viduals do little to contribute to this healthy debate constructively. In- stead, they thrive on sensational exag- gerations, if not outright fabrications, and trivialise what is essentially a legal, social and an environmental issue…. Cheap, publicity-seeking claims of 'millions of migratory birds blasted out of the sky', 'unregulated hunting seasons' and similar statements fall apart in the face of the following facts," the reply goes, listing numbers to back up Malta's enforcement record and high rate of hunters' compliance with their legal obligations to pro- vide complete bag data. "Malta has one of the harshest, if not the harshest in Europe penalty regimes against illegal shooting and taking of wild birds, with penalties including up to €15,000 fine, impris- onment of up to two years, perma- nent revocation of license and con- fiscation… By way of comparison, the highest penalty envisaged for illegal hunting in the UK is a GBP 5,000 fine," it continues saying. What the hunting lobby and the Labour government – which curried favour with the FKNK in the elec- tion campaign by promising not to 'gold-plate environmental laws' – do not realise is how popular the spring hunting referendum is both in Mal- ta, and now abroad. Packham's tweets have been circu- lated widely, with even actor Stephen Fry and comedian Bill Bailey joining in on the cause. The response has been varied. The head of the European liberals, Chris Davies MEP, has noted that penal- ties in Malta have been doubled but that he will be urging the Royal So- ciety for the Protection of Birds "to provide evidence of the lack of en- forcement of EU law to the Maltese authorities and the European Com- mission as soon as possible." Jean Lambert, London's Green MEP, said Maltese officials and hunters were "clearly failing to take the EU rules seriously, it's time for the Commission to step in and stop this dreadful practice." Even European Commissioner for the environment Janez Potočnik was furiously tweeted by supporters, hav- ing to respond that the Commission had alreadt taken Malta to court over its deogration from the Birds Direc- tive. "Malta's govt is responsible for enforcing, EU is and will continue to monitor," he replied. Supporters of legal hunting in Mal- ta also point out that the Brits are overlooking the fact that the hunt- ing season has been granted the fiat of the European Court of Justice. In 2009, the ECJ left the door ajar for the hunting of Quail and Turtle Dove during the autumn and for Malta to apply a derogation from the Birds Directive's ban on spring hunting. On its part, the Maltese govern- ment insists that the conditions for the spring hunting season are severely restricted. Hunters are permitted to shoot a maximum of two turtle doves and quails on any given day and up to four birds during the entire season. "The national quota is of 11,000 turtle doves and 5,000 quail… a far cry from the false claim of 'massacres of mil- lions of birds' on Malta, which simply do not migrate over the Maltese is- lands in such numbers," the govern- ment says. Even hunters are complaining that they no longer find plentiful quarry to hunt. But here lies the rub, with con- servationists saying that the popula- tion of turtle dove in severe decline. The RSPB says the turtle dove's gentle purr ('tur-tur', which gives the bird its scientific name streptotelia turtur) was once the sound of summer, but their population declined in the UK by 93% since 1970, and it now faces possible extinction as a breeding spe- cies by 2020. Malta's response this year was to field a complement of 69 officers, comprising regular Administrative Law Enforcement units and Armed Forces of Malta personnel, deployed out in the field at all hours. Almost 1,500 spot-checks were carried out on individual hunters, around 15% of all licensed hunters, to verify compliance with special spring hunting license conditions. But Packham witnessed the down- ing of illegal quarry and birds of prey, and filmed police officers apparently unwilling to chase down hunters sus- pected of having shot at the birds. In an utter waste of time and only fur- ther throwing its reputation down the gutter, the police chose to arrest a BirdLife campaigner for filming a po- lice intervention. On Friday evening, the 'tweetstorm' unleashed with the hashtag #Malta- Massacre had reached speeds of over 800 tweets per minute at one point. The calm and peace of Malta's spring had been shattered, not just by the gunshots in the countryside, but by the outrage of concerned citizens both in Malta and abroad. News 25, Air Cargo House, Triq Ìanni Vassallo, Luqa T: +356 2558 4888 E: trucking@cassar-cooper.com Cassar & Cooper have always put their effort into communicating with every customer creating a tailor-made trucking service to meet the ever increasing demand. COMPETITIVE RATES - EFFICIENT - RELIABLE A tailor-made trucking service to meet all demands. 'Packham effect' raises €50,000 online target thanks to Packham's appeals. BirdLife said that the abrogative referendum spearheaded by the Coalition for the Abolition of Spring Hunting, which reached 45,000 sig- natures to petition for the referen- dum, needs funding to "demonstrate to the Maltese people how important it is that they go out and vote to abol- ish spring hunting." BirdLife said that it will need in ex- cess of €100,000 to mount its cam- paign. BBC presenter held in police custody for hours