[WATCH] ‘Hunting problem has worsened as countryside has shrunk’ – Balzan

‘Hunting problem has worsened as countryside has shrunk’ – Balzan

The continuous destruction of the countryside means that hunting has become an increasingly severe problem, MediaToday managing editor Saviour Balzan warned.

“Our country is small, the countryside has shrunk, and yet Malta has the highest concentration of hunters in the world,” Balzan, a spokesperson for the Spring Hunting Out (SHout) campaign, said during a debate on spring hunting at the MCAST campus in Paola. “Malta has progressed in everything except for the spring hunting issue, and the hunters think they have the right to keep the clock from turning and to maintain sole control over the countryside.”

He rubbished the Yes campaign’s claims that a referendum victory for the No camp could trigger future referenda on other hobbies.

“This referendum is about spring hunting, and yet the Yes campaign are trying to scare people that fishing and fireworks will be next on the hit-list,” Balzan said, while citing ex-judge Giovanni Bonello’s declaration that such claims were “outright lies”.

However, Yes campaign spokesperson Mark Bonello said that current arguments against spring hunting could easily be applied to other hobbies.

“Fishing involves the killing of fish, and fireworks are a nuisance to some people,” he said. “This is a positive campaign, because we don’t want to see other people suffer in the future, as we are now.

He argued that hunters have helped the countryside by planting trees, keeping fields clean, and building rubble walls.

“Spring hunting only opens for 20 half-days, on only two bird species [quail and turtledove], and with a strict season quota of 16,000 birds,” Bonello said. “That accounts for less than 1% of the EU’s quail and turtledove population, and the European Commission considers that to be sustainable level of hunting.”

Bonello repeated the Yes campaign’s accusations that Balzan had personally negotiated the spring hunting derogation during Malta’s EU accession talks. Balzan had earlier denounced this claim as a lie.

“All EU countries have the right to derogate, and Malta had applied a spring hunting derogation after joining the EU,” he said. “The European Commisison instantly charged Malta, and in 2009 the European Court of Justice found the Maltese government guilty of not applying the derogation properly. The European Commission commenced infringement procedures against Malta the following year, but unfrotuantely the European courts take long to make a decision.”

He pointed out that the European Commission had also launched infringement procedures against Malta for reopening the finch trapping season last year.

“Malta is the only European country that permits the hunting of quail and turtledove in the spring,” Balzan said. “The cardinal point though is that 43,000 Maltese people have signed a petition that called for a referendum to end the hunting season.”

Bonello retorted that countries apply derogations according to their specific circumstances, and that the UK, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Netherlands apply different hunting derogations.

“Too few quail and turtledove and quail fly over Malta during the autumn hunting season, which is why the European Commission allowed us to derogate from the Birds Directive by hunting them in spring,” he said.

He also claimed that hunting illegalities have decreased in recent years, that quail and turtledove start breeding in late May, and that non-hunters already have plenty of opportunities to enjoy the countryside in spring when the hunting season is closed.

Balzan criticised hunters for their frequent insults, threats and acts of vandalisation, as well as for claiming that public land is in fact private property. He pointed out that the law allows ramblers from passing through private property but that the hunters disallow them from doing so.

An MCAST student questioned why 16-year-olds have been given the right to vote in the upcoming local council elections, but not in the spring hunting referendum. While Balzan said that 16-year-olds should be allowed to vote, Bonello was coyer, saying that the law is the law.

“The law is what it is,” he said. “For example, six-year-olds are allowed to hunt in the UK.”