FKNK says afternoon ban penalises law-abiding hunters

“The FKNK repeats that this is a government introduced ban not an EU related regulation… BirdLife persists in misinforming the public on the hunting issues,” secretary-general Lino Farrugia said.

BirdLife Malta has criticised FKNK for objecting to the government’s ban on hunting after 3pm during the autumn. The NGO said FKNK had conditionally agreed in a February 2009 Ornis Committee meeting that there would be a 15-day ban on hunting in the afternoon between September 15 and 30.

It added that an afternoon hunting ban was necessary to offer respite to exhausted birds of prey arriving here at that time of year, while on their migratory route to Africa, which spend ‘hours circulating the island’ to find rest.

FKNK retorted claiming that if birds were really exhausted, “would they spend hours circling the island looking for a place to rest? An exhausted bird would alight immediately on the nearest land. So much for BirdLife’s understanding of bird migration,” Farrugia said

Farrugia suggested that BirdLife deploy hunting monitors during the afternoon hunting ban and called on government not to “cut corners to the detriment of law-abiding hunters.”

The FKNK said the afternoon ban was still unjust, because it penalises “bona fide hunters unnecessarily, undermines the public’s trust in police ability at round-the-clock enforcement, and merely panders to BirdLife’s insatiable demands.”