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FKNK publishes report on spring hunting and tourism
Hunters’ federation prepares report on spring hunting and tourism in Malta.
20 September 2013, 12:00am
Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
2 min read
Hunters' federation FKNK has published a report on spring hunting and tourism in Malta which will be distributed to the media, the House of Representatives, ministries, EU institutions and other stakeholders.
Further copies can be purchased from the FKNK offices in Msida.
According to FKNK CEO Lino Farrugia, the report does not to justify Maltese hunting, scientifically or technically.
"This literature only states facts regarding anti-hunting persons and entities, who shield themselves under the umbrella of 'bird-protectionists' in order to satisfy their ultimate aim to abolish Maltese hunting and trapping customs and 'collect' funds in the process, even at the sake of harming incoming tourism to Malta through boycotts," Farrugia said.
FKNK said it has prepared the report after tourism organisation MHRA expressed concern hunting may negatively affect the economic income of their members.
The MHRA has also proposed a national conference to tackle this issue.
Farrugia said incoming tourism figures for 2013, forecast by hoteliers, predict another positive record year and the Malta International Airport has announced a record passenger movement in April.
"Despite these positive facts, the hype that anti-hunting entities and individuals managed to create seems to have aroused the MHRA's concern," Farrugia said.
Farrugia said that even though a national conference has not yet taken place, FKNK took the initiative to publish the report.
"We thank MHRA for this 'push' since such an informative and detailed report has been long overdue," Farrugia added.
FKNK said that besides dealing with the Maltese traditional socio-cultural recreational passion of spring hunting, the report also tackles local and foreign journalism; anti-hunting bias; hunting tourism; volunteer tourists and related neo-colonialism issues; illegal hunting; the hunting way of life; and tourism boycotts.
"The report also explains that eating game is not only healthy but also considered a delicacy, since no matter what amount of money one possesses, one can never afford to buy a wild-game meal at any of Malta's several restaurants and hotels," the report says.
It adds that this is due to the fact that traditional wild-game dishes cannot be made available on commercial restaurant menus because the source is not available to the restaurant operators and hoteliers.
The report also includes recipes of Malta's chief game-birds, turtle dove and quail, which are the only two species for which limited and controlled hunting is permitted in spring.
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I am regular vistor to Lovely Malta and I personnaly dont agree with the Hunting and Trapping that is carried out on Malta, BUT I respect, understand and accept it is part of Malta's culture and on that basis I feel that I and other tourist would not stop coming to your lovely country because of your traditions and culture relating to Hunting and Trapping as it does not effect me directly, I think the pick pockets are more likely to affect tourism than the huntering.
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I suggest FKNK renames their report "Horsesh*t" report. It is, as is their wont, arrogant and insulting to the general Maltese public. Whether they eat the game or not is irrelevant. Blue fish tuna and other fish is also edible but fishing is either banned or controlled. The argument about tradition is also an unsuccessful attemtp to make the slauhter of birds respectable. Tradition is not an excuse: once there was a tradition that heretics or even homosexuals be burnt alive at the stake. Becaue of its barbarity and cruelty, similar to the barbarity and cruelty of hunting, burning at the stake was outlawed. So should hunting. Hunters know that the overwhelming Maltese public is dead set against hunting. In my opinion, politicians who are pandering to hunters are short-sighted indeed. Eventually they will pay a heavy political price for their shortsightedness. In these times when electors do not think twice before changing their political allegiance, even at a whim, politicians should beware of siding with small miniroty groups like hunters (yes, small in relation to the total numbers of voters) as they risk losing support and, where applicable, parliamentary majority.
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It is extremely cheeky of the Hunting lobby to continue to ride the laurels of the last election results and the performance of the tourism industry to justify this gross liability to the country. By socio-cultural passion, they mean turning what’s left of Malta’s green areas into one big hunting ground while the rest of us have to thread carefully, not to scare away the prey of their killing rampages. Thanking the MHRA is a nice touch but adds more than just a touch of irony to this whole report as in insinuates that the MHRA have given their endorsement to the contents. Credibility of this report? Nothing more than a PR attempt and a one sided argumentation to justify what has become a national shame.
