BIRD PROTECTION CAMP MALTA AUTUMN 2007

From Mr M. Mifsud Bonnici

A report in the local media made by The Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS), which states: "CABS would return to Malta for a longer stay and with more volunteers during the spring hunting season and that it would continue its actions in Malta - until hunting stops", amply shows the deceit of this extremist organisation. It proves that the sole purpose of organising the so-called "raptor camps" is not the intended study of raptors and the reporting of illegalities, which was the excuse used for their visit, but an attempt to stop all hunting.

An organisation that does not distinguish between illegal shooting and shooting legal quarry and claims to act "against bird slaughter", can only be described as extremist and as such its methods and reporting are to be evaluated on this basis. We would welcome bona fide birdwatchers as readily as we would the reporting and prosecuting of illegal shooting, but we will definitely not tolerate any society or committee intent on banning hunting. We repeat that, like all other EU citizens, we have a right to hunt and no amount of pressure from similar groups will deny us this right.

CABS was hosted by international Animal Rescue and Nature Trust that ironically in The Times earlier this year, reported a marked decrease in illegal shooting of birds. Also, as stated by the spokesperson for CABS, Heinz Schwarze, the police offered their full support, probably being as gullible as all bona fide hunters and the public in general in the sense that CABS, posing as genuine birdwatchers, were seen as a deterrent to all illegal shooters and a welcome help in the fight against illegal shooting. But the true facts prove otherwise.

Reading through the CABS website diary on http://www.komitee.de/en/index.php?diary2007, which lists observations carried out by 22 activists from Germany, Italy and UK positioned in 10 teams in different hunting "hot spots" around the islands, does indeed show a few illegalities. However, as also confirmed by our minister for the environment, these illegalities are no more than is to be expected and found in other countries and they are being dealt with using our country's own resources without the need for foreign interference

These "birdwatchers" had the cheek to state, "Foreign birdwatchers cannot understand fuss by hunters". CABS (which is) based in Bonn, Germany is involved in monitoring illegal hunting in several countries and knows that illegalities taking place in other countries are on a much larger scale than in Malta (listed in website http://www.komitee.de/en/index.php?projects. Yet with the exception of Malta, it has never stated that hunting should be stopped in any of the countries it monitors. In order to justify my point (and the fuss made by CABS and not by hunters) I will quote the CABS website dealing with the illegal hunting of raptors in Germany. The full text can be read on http://www.komitee.de/en/index.php?raptors

"All raptor species in Germany are still officially categorized as 'huntable wildlife'. Federal law and international legislation however forbid their persecution. Some hunting functionaries are far from happy with this situation and miss no opportunity to label raptors as alleged pests for small game. They win support from the ranks of the pigeon-fanciers, for whom the recovery of Peregrine Falcon and Goshawk populations has long been a thorn in the flesh."
"Germany's southernmost state Bavaria has to date blatantly ignored the EU bird protection guidelines and permitted the annual killing of hundreds of Goshawks and Buzzards. Elsewhere the perpetrators find their own way around the law. CABS members still continue to find traps, poisoned bait and shot raptors in the lowlands north of the central German mountain range, which are rich in small game."
Knowing full well the extent of illegalities that go on in other countries, especially in Germany, has CABS asked the German government to stop all hunting? Has the German government interfered with the legal activities of the members of the German hunting federation? Obviously this has not happened. So CABS picks on the small fry: Malta! CABS and the other raptor camp participants assumed an easy "killing" following government's rash and unjustified decision to stop last season's spring hunting due to an alleged massacre of raptors (which to date, five months later, has not resulted in any convictions). This time, however, the government saw through their ploy and hopefully, next time around, will reconsider going out of its way to help these troublemakers.
We emphatically state that we condemn any form of illegal shooting both locally and overseas. It has always been our organisation's aim to educate and help eradicate this vice. The only difference is that, unlike CABS and their allies, whose real aim is the banning of hunting in Malta, we do not adopt a system of two weights and two measures nor do we resort to vile deceitful tactics. And yes we do kick up a fuss when comedians put on such shows with the aim of blackening the Maltese hunters'image.

Mark Mifsud Bonnici
Secretary
St Hubert Hunters

This letter - word for word - was also published in the Times of Malta on 7 October 2007!