Opposition MP suggests ethics, bird proficiency courses for hunters

Hunters should be obliged to participate in courses on ethics and proper hunting behaviour, as well as to undertake tests on bird proficiency before acquiring a gun license, Opposition MP Charlo Bonnici suggested.

“We need to ensure that license tests for hunters  aren’t so easy that people incapable of hunting responsibly end up obtaining them,” the PN’s spokesperson for hunting said in a parliamentary debate on the Budget.

In his speech, Bonnici also advocated a more rigorous gun licensing system for hunting, so as to retract licenses from people facing charges of attempted murder and other violent offences.

Notably, he called for an extension of the Whistleblower’s Act to allow people to report cases of illegal hunting anonymously.

“An anomaly exists in the system whereby people who report illegal hunting are required to testify in court,” Bonnici said. “Consequently, people don’t report cases of illegal hunting to the police because they are afraid of testifying in court.”

‘Question marks over bird regulation unit’s new enforcement powers’

Charlo Bonnici shed doubt on a controversial legal notice that grants the state’s Wild Birds Regulation Unit powers of enforcement.

“The legal notice has made the WBRU both regulator and enforcer, the latter role of which should have remained in the hands of the police,” he said. “Even if the WBRU’s enforcement proves adequate, the combination of these two roles into one entity will lead to transparency problems.”

He questioned whether the WBRU inspectors will work with or independently from the police, and whether the former will close their eyes to illegalities.

“The WBRU inspectors haven’t taken an oath [to carry out their duties professionally] as police officers have, and their selection wasn’t transparent at all.”