Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/455578
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 1 FEBRUARY 2015 3 News Maltese hunters killing chance of 190,000 chicks each spring MATTHEW VELLA A report launched yesterday by TV presenter and animal activ- ist Moira Delia and bird enthusiast and BirdLife Malta Trustee Mark Sultana for the Spring Hunting Out Campaign revealed the shocking fact that Maltese hunters kill the chance of 190,000 chicks being born each spring. Speaking at a press conference in Għadira Nature Reserve, Moira De- lia made a powerful speech about the cruel effects of spring hunting on wild birds. "190,000 eggs are not laid each year because Maltese hunters shoot their parents out of the sky. The lives lost are not just those of the birds killed, but also those stolen from the next generation. This is why spring never comes for the hunted." Mark Sultana said that the spring hunting season acts as a cover for the targeting of rare and protected birds, with over 38 protected species of birds being illegally shot in Malta during the last four spring hunting seasons. These include blue rock thrush, Malta's national bird, and pallid harriers, Europe's rarest bird of prey. "Countless protected birds are shot in Malta each year, and many are just left to die in agony in the countryside," Delia said. Mark Sultana explained that EU law makes it illegal to hunt birds in spring, and that Malta is the only country to allow hunting of birds in spring purely for fun. The spring hunting season allows 11,000 turtle dove and 5,000 quail to be shot over three weeks, although many more are killed by Malta's 10,000 hunters. Thousands of birds will never make it back home to breed, putting future generations of birds in danger. Mark Sultana stated that "turtle doves are in real danger across Europe, over 20 million of these birds have disappeared since 1980. Spring hunting is endangering their survival." Delia urged everyone to speak up and make their voice heard: "We cannot continue to steal from future generations, this is why we voters must turn out on 11 April and vote 'no' to end this destruction." READ the 8-page report http://bit.ly/1EwsY0m MIRIAM DALLI WITH two months to go for the spring hunting abrogative referendum, the hunt- ing lobbies led by Lino Farrugia and Mark Mifsud Bonnici, have been advised not to engage with the independent media through comments or interviews to the in- dependent media. So far, supporters of the spring hunting derogation have sent letters to the editor and posted comments on the online com- ment boards. But they will not be engaging with the three major independent newspapers – The Times of Malta, MaltaToday, and The Malta Independent – for their support of the 'no' vote in the abrogative referendum to ban spring hunting. Lino Farrugia, CEO of the hunting fed- eration, FKNK, who repeatedly refuses to speak to MaltaToday, confirmed that the hunting lobby had adopted a new policy: "Until this referendum is over, we will con- tinue issuing press releases but we will not accept to give comments or interviews on the matter." Asked whether the FKNK would then ex- pect the independent media houses to pub- lish their news releases, Farrugia said no and that it was up to the respective media house to decide whether or not to publish. Members of the independent media will be given the opportunity to ask questions when the FKNK launches its referendum campaign, because then the media will be allowed to ask for the lobby's comments: "You will be invited and you will obviously be allowed to ask questions as you would during any other press conference." According to Farrugia, this decision was adopted following the newspapers' deci- sion to adopt "a common front against the hunters". The Kaccaturi San Ubertu association has also adopted the policy under which they will refuse to give comments to the inde- pendent newspapers but the hunters will still comment in the comments section on the same news portals. "Apart from posting our comments on- line we are not giving comments to any of the newspapers that decided to support the 'no' vote," KSU spokesman Mark Mifsud Bonnici told MaltaToday. "We would consider the option of send- ing articles to or accepting interviews from one of these newspapers provided we have a guarantee in writing that all our articles or interviews are forwarded to us before publication and are printed unedited to- gether with any accompanying pictures or slogans." MaltaToday has a long-standing policy of not sending any of its interviews to the interviewees before publishing. When this newspaper explained that KSU would be treated equally and in the same ways, Mif- sud Bonnici insisted that the only way KSU would "consider to accept" an interview was under their own terms. He added that MaltaToday's stand against spring hunting did not make the reporting impartial. IN a reaction to the SHout report, hunters from the Kaccaturi San Ubertu 'deplored' what they claimed was false propaganda "fed to an unin- formed public." Mark Mifsud Bonnici said the quota negotiated with the European Commission for the spring derogation by the previous administration was within the 1% of the species mortality rate con- templated by the EU's Birds Directive and was considered sustainable, based on the bird's con- servation status and population figures. "The global populations of these two species as calculated by Birdlife International are that of up to 100 million turtle doves of which 25% to 40% form part of the European population. The quail is even more numerous with up to 300,000,000 individuals of which 5% to 24% in Europe," he said. Mifsud Bonnici said these birds' conservation status was evaluated by the International Union of the Conservation of Nature, IUCN, referred to by the European Court of Justice (ECJ), which states: "Despite the fact that the population trend appears to be decreasing, the decline is not believed to be sufficiently rapid to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable. The population size is extremely large, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the popula- tion size criterion. For these reasons the species is evaluated as Least Concern". "According to European Directives all game birds evaluated as Least Concern can be sus- tainably hunted under derogation endorsed by the European Court of Justice," Mifsud Bonnici said. Hunters told not to engage with public and independent media 'Over 100 million turtle doves' – hunters decry 'false propaganda' Spring hunting in Malta kills the strong birds that are returning to mainland Europe from Africa to lay eggs and raise young. Hunting these strong birds that have survived the winter is putting future generations of birds in danger. Turtle Dove and Quail are the two types of bird that can be officially hunted in spring. Turtle Dove numbers across Europe have declined by over 80% and over 20 million of these birds have disappeared since 1980. Shooting them in spring is endangering their survival. Over 38 other types of bird have been targeted by hunters in spring between 2010-14. This shooting is illegal. The spring hunting season acts as cover for the targeting of rare and protected types of bird. Each Maltese hunter can shoot up to four birds in spring. There are about 10,000 registered spring hunters. If each hunter shoots a pair of Turtle Dove and Quail each, Maltese hunters would be responsible for preventing 190,000 eggs from being laid each year. Preventing birds from breeding by shooting them is having a serious impact on future generations. About 15 types of bird could nest and breed in Malta if spring hunting was banned, including Barn Owl, Common Kestrel and the iconic Maltese or Peregrine Falcon. The European Union Birds' Directive makes it illegal to hunt birds in spring. Only Malta allows hunting of birds in spring for fun. In 2009 the European Court of Justice found Malta guilty of being in breach of the Birds' Directive for allowing spring hunting. Additional text in the judgement allows a loophole by which the Maltese government can allow spring hunting. The referendum is aimed at closing this loophole by removing the law that allows spring hunting in Malta. Both political parties have been targeted by the hunters' organisations to make deals for the promise of their votes at elections. This has meant spring hunting seasons have become longer with more hunters allowed to go out and hunt. Both political parties have made deals with hunters. The referendum takes the decision about the future of hunting in Malta out of their hands. The European Commission monitors Malta's spring hunting seasons and is aware that there are problems. Because of the political situation in Europe it seems unwilling to act quickly to end spring hunting. It takes a long time for the European Commission to act so every year more and more birds are killed. Spring hunting in Malta is having a serious impact on birds. 10,000 hunters shooting birds is having a serious impact on future generations of birds. Voting NO in the referendum is the most certain way of stopping this damage. Source: SHout Against Spring Hunting Lino Farrugia – 'no comments, no interviews' Mark Sultana and Moira Delia – 'spring hunting is cruel' Mark Mifsud Bonnici – 'texts of interviews have to be forwarded to us before publication, and printed unedited'