The vast majority of right-thinking Maltese deplore the bullying antics of hunters. They are especially revolted by the illegal hunting carried out by a sizeable minority. Few would therefore have resisted the feeling of 'schadenfreude' as the so-called Federation for Hunting and Conservation piled one public relations disaster on the other in its reaction to the fortnight-long Raptor Monitoring Camp that has just ended.
The language used at a press conference by the secretary of the federation to describe members of the Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS), a German-based group of bird watchers, was ill-judged, intemperate in the extreme and utterly unacceptable. This led inevitably to members of CABS being physically and verbally harassed by hunters on the ground - being called "Nazis" and pelted with stones. There were also reports of incidents where both male and female members were subjected to acts of indecent exposure and to others being threatened with weapons.
If the leadership of the hunting federation speaks of "foreign interference" and "extremists" and fans xenophobia, is it any wonder if the swaggering arrogance of men armed with shotguns in the rank and file is translated into acts of overt intimidation? If the federation feared that the presence of the Raptor Monitoring Camp would expose the blatant acts of illegal hunting which took place, they were right to be worried. Bird watchers witnessed over 200 incidents of illegal hunting and trapping during the 14-day camp, including the shooting of 109 protected birds.
The shooting of the rare and beautiful lesser-spotted eagle and its high-profile transportation to Berlin for treatment perhaps epitomises most vividly the bad press to which hunting - and Malta - has been exposed. This was followed by a more serious incident in which a ranger was hit by shotgun pellets in the face. But better await the outcome of police investigations before commenting further.
The bottom line is that it is Malta's good name which is tarnished by the hunters' ill-disciplined behaviour. In an effort to claw back some of the ground lost by the adverse publicity of the last fortnight, senior members of the federation have sought to place the blame on "a very small minority that acts irresponsibly" - conceding under pressure that this "small minority" could be as high as "five per cent of active hunters".
The federation places its faith in some form of self-regulation whereby their own members, acting as marshals, would report illegal hunting to an internal committee - but not necessarily to the police. In a revealing statement, the federation said "hunters find it hard to report fellow hunters to the police".
This begs the key question: If the act of shooting protected birds breaks the law, why should the federation shy away from reporting to the police those who do so? The code of silence can never be preferred over the application of the rule of law.
In a civilised society, the rule of law must prevail and until the federation of hunters truly understands this basic tenet, they will fail either to have the credibility needed for self-regulation to work or to regain any trust and respect from the public for what they term as their traditional sport.
Self-regulation could indeed play a part in controlling hunting provided it is implemented as an intrinsic weapon in the armoury of law enforcement. But applying the law effectively, and apprehending and punishing those who transgress it, must form the cornerstone on which the scourge of illegal hunting is overcome and Malta's good name in this area is restored.