Anti-spring hunting coalition label hunters’ actions ‘undemocratic’

The Coalition for the Abolition of Spring Hunting denounced the hunters' federation (FKNK), describing their plan to launch a petition to amend the Referendum Act as "profoundly undemocratic and unethical."

Yesterday, FKNK launched a counter-petition to amend the Referenda Act, after the Coalition Against Spring Hunting announced it had collected over 30,000 signatures to hold a referendum to abolish spring hunting.

The FKNK said it would collect signatures for a petition to amend the Referendum Act to "protect the rights, interests, and privileges for all minorities."

Coalition spokesperson Christian Debono said, "Claiming that hunters deserve protection from the wishes of voters because they are a minority group is a blatant attempt to twist the meaning of minority rights.  Such rights apply to people who might be persecuted because of their religion, ethnicity or their sexual orientation. Shooting birds for fun does not qualify for such protection and no one should be convinced by this smokescreen."

Another coalition spokesperson, Rodolfo Ragonesi added that the democratic process is the basis of society, and stretches much further than any particular issue.

"It is shameful that we see an attempt by one lobby to curtail the voter's power to further their limited, narrow, selfish aims. Shooting birds on their way to breed has absolutely nothing to do with minority rights. If killing is ever deemed to be a right, it would be an atrocious perversion of justice".

The coalition also reaffirmed its efforts to proceed with its referendum petition to take the matter of spring hunting to the people.

Christian Debono added, "the hunting lobby has made successive governments so frightened to deal with spring hunting that it has effectively denied the people a say in the matter. We call on everyone who has not yet signed the petition to join the more than 30,000 people who have already signed."

The referendum will seek to abolish the hunting of Turtle Dove and Quail in spring because of their declining population and the impact of spring hunting on other protected species.

Copies of the petition form and instructions on how to gather signatures can be downloaded from the BirdLife Malta website, www.birdlifemalta.org and Gaia's facebook page https://www.facebook.com/thegaiafoundationmalta