'Hunters not all pot-bellied pigs' - Yes campaign

The SHout campaign was "deliberately depicting hunters as savage law-breakers and pot-bellied pigs", hunter Mark Bonello claimed today.

Speaking at a poorly-attended question and answer session outside the law courts this morning, Bonello said "In our campaign, we've shown that hunters include professionals from all walks of life," 

Bonello, an economist, added "I've been hunting for 14 years and if I'd wanted to wear a mask, I'd have worn one at Carnival,"  in response to SHout's accusations that the hunters are ignoring the vicious aspect of Spring hunting throughout their campaign.

"This movement isn't only for hunters either, but for all those who believe in protecting minorities."

Kathleen Grima, lawyer for hunting organisation FKNK, said that the rate of turtledove and quail conservation was increasing and that hunters should not all be punished because of the illegal actions of a minority of hunters.

"Should the hunters who obey the law suffer because of the ones who don't or should we leave it to the institutions to punish illegal hunters?" she questioned. "There are so many cases of bad driving, but should we take away everyone's driving licenses because of them?"

'Quail figures no indication that autumn is an alternative'
A recent study by environmental company Ecoserv showed that 50,000 quail flew over Malta in the 2014 autumn hunting season, more than the number that flew over the islands in the last Spring hunting season. When asked by MaltaToday why the hunters are still insisting that not enough quail fly over Malta in the autumn months, Bonello said that Ecoserv's results aren't indicative of what happens every autumn.

"In one year, quail numbers could be abundant and the next they could be sporadic, just like lampuki," Bonello said. "Every Autumn, 8.5 million quail and turtledove are hunted in Europe but too few of them fly over Malta during that season, which is why the EU gave Malta the right to derogate in the first place."

"If turtledove and quail were in danger of extinction, the EU would have halted Spring hunting itself. The fact that they haven't means that they aren’t in risk.

He pointed out that quail and turtledoves aren’t only killed for pleasure but for consumption too. "If they were only killed for pleasure, they wouldn’t be found on restaurant menus."

He said that hunters pay €2 million on hunting licenses, money that is used by police to enforce hunting regulations.

"Abolishing Spring hunting would be almost equivalent to abolishing hunting altogether, meaning that a lot of hunters won’t be interested in renewing their licenses," he said. "Therefore, the police will have less funds to monitor hunting. At the same time, enforcement would have to increase as they'd have to monitor all types of hunting.

He argued that other EU countries apply different hunting derogations too, such as the UK where the hunting of 17 species is permitted all year round, in Latvia where woodcock are hunted all year young, and in Finland, where longtail duck are hunted in Spring.

'We're not at war'
FKNK president Joe Perici Calascione's description of the referendum as a 'war' was not intended to be an incitement of violence, Grima said.

"His choice of words was a huge hit and only he can explain what he meant by them, but I'm sure he meant it in that the hunters chose to take an active stance rather than boycott the referendum."