Kenneth Zammit Tabona
I do not think that I have ever received so many e-mails showing approval and solidarity as during the aftermath of my article about hunting two weeks ago. While I was very happy that there are so many people who feel that the abuses of the hunters who flout the law must be stopped, I still felt like the proverbial Voice in the Wilderness as, to date, with one notable exception, not one of these people or anyone else has publicly supported either me or BirdLife. I have been told that it is because they are scared of reprisals from the hunters and their innate sense of self preservation prevents them from putting pen to paper to express what the vast majority of us feel.
Let me once again make myself clear. I am against illegal and not legal hunting, however if abuse is allowed to happen unchecked I am afraid that it will be inevitable that the entire hunting community will be tarred with the same brush.
I was terribly depressed about the situation especially after there was a full-page interview on September 29 consisting of dust clouds thrown up by the FKNK's second in command, Joe Perici Calascione, that downplayed the situation.
Mr Perici Calascione declared, hand on his heart, that if he sees someone shooting a protected bird he would report that person. I have no doubt that both Lino Farrugia and Joe, two fellow Aloysians, mean exactly what they say and have every intention of upholding the law. The FKNK is in a very powerful position as should a member be expelled, that person would automatically lose his licence. Mr Perici Calascione said that the FKNK was ready to crack down but added that, at present, the hunting federation feels hounded which, when one thinks of Diana and Actaeon, is a very curious position for hunters to be in the first place.
For practically a full week the wall of public silence depressed me no end. Is it possible that the entire rank and file of us is afraid of standing up for their rights? Will we forever more be unable to take a pleasant county walk without being told to clear off and be deviated by all sorts of boundaries that mushroom according to the caprices of the hunting community? How long would we have to put up with daily reports that protected species were being used as target practice? Was there nobody apart from BirdLife and I who could come out strongly and unequivocally against this abuse?
One would have expected that after Environment Minister George Pullicino abruptly ended spring hunting some months ago he would do the same now, especially after the Foresta 2000 ranger in Mellieha was shot at in the face and insulted. However, it was the Church Environment Commission on Monday the first that came out, excuse the comparison, with guns blazing instead!
The message was clear and unequivocal. It was not couched in the usual ecclesiastical palliatives and sugar-coatings. It just warned that illegal hunting must stop and that these illegalities are jeopardising the countryside and our fauna in an unsustainable fashion. It was such a relief. To have the unmistakable backing of an institution that holds governments to ransom is strength indeed. When enough is enough and the government, the FKNK or the police cannot control the situation one is forcibly reminded of the Italian saying that goes quando non posso piu, ricorso al Buon Gesu (when I've had enough, I turn to dear Jesus).
It is apt that as I write to meet my deadline on Thursday, October 4, it happens to be the feast day of St Francis of Assisi - the poverello, whose love for God's creation at a time when animal rights were unheard of, has reverberated through the centuries and still, through the indelibly strong images conjured up by his canticles as immortalised by Giotto, presents us with a unique aspect of Christianity that has, in all this time, been responsible for environmental preservation long before the term was invented.
St Francis was the first eco-warrior, the first man in history to make it abundantly clear that all creatures, great and small, are part of God's plan and that man must respect them and use them in a sustainable way.
Therefore, can one not be shocked to the core when one reads about the incident when last Sunday a person or persons unknown broke into the Razzett tal-Hbiberija and not only stole 13 animals from the therapy park but bludgeoned a deer to death?
I could not help thinking of the deer that appear as attributes of St Julians and St Hubertus, both of whom are associated with hunting. Why did not a crucifix appear between the antlers of this deer that brought so much pleasure to the handicapped children who frequent the Park of Friendship as it did when St Hubertus was out hunting? Why did it not speak to its killer as it did to St Julian? Has God abandoned us to allow these senseless acts of cruelty to happen? Are miracles a thing of the past, lost as are the stories of Zeus's adventures?
The animals and birds had been trained to be friendly with children and were an integral part of the Park's therapy programme. What is it that causes a person to discard all sense of decency and commit an atrocity like this? We have mercifully no civil war on our hands and our population is generally tolerant and easy-going. Therefore, the elements that are present in some degree in all populations have to vent their pent up frustration to maim and kill defenceless creatures, God's creation, innocent animals that were fashioned for our greater delight and wonder.
It is this basic killer instinct that in more extreme situations allows a man to dash out the brains of a newborn child without an ounce of remorse. This is the type of horror that the Eritreans are fleeing from. This is what happened in ex-Yugoslavia and in Cambodia. It may start with animals and birds but there is just one tiny step to be able to kill a child if the fevered brain is conditioned to it.
It was right and fitting for the Church to speak out against illegal hunting while claiming that persistent abuse would jeopardise legal hunting. If the Church would not have spoken up on behalf of the silent and scared majority I really do not know who else could have done it. The Church's unexpected and brave statement was to me as extraordinarily miraculous as the Crucifix that appeared between the antlers of the deer of St Hubertus. The Church has spoken on behalf of the dumb and defenceless and, like the deer of St Julian, prophesised dire consequences if something is not done to regularise the abuses once and for all.
Miracles still do happen.

kzt@onvol.net