On lifeless trophies and the Hunting Pied Piper

Lifeless trophies

Joe Aquilina-St John, as expected, has replied back to the secretary of the hunters' federation Lino Farrugia's letter in the Times of January 14.

Mr Aquilina St-John writes: "It seems that Lino Farrugia, secretary of the Federation for Hunting and Conservation (sic) (January 14), is the sole entity qualified to educate our children.

In his unqualified wisdom, he changes the meaning of words to suit himself. He claims that 'hunting has become synonymous with conservation' and qualifies this by stating 'hunters safeguard, husband or conserve' species of birds they hunt, 'as otherwise there would be nothing to hunt'.

So there we have it, right from the horse's mouth: Hunters conserve just long enough to shoot them down! And what does he mean by saying 'species of birds we hunt'? It has long been evident that many hunters are indiscriminate, killing anything that flies, including threatened and protected species. Mr Farrugia, one does not safeguard birds by shooting them; one does not husband by killing them before they reach their breeding grounds, and one does not conserve birds by breeding them for the kill!

Hunters are not allowing our children to enjoy seeing these magnificent birds in our skies. Instead, they selfishly covet these birds for themselves, preferring to see them stuffed and motionless in their display cabinets, rather than enjoy them in their natural environment.

Perhaps they can 'educate' our children by inviting them into their homes to see their lifeless trophies!"

Mark the Hunting Pied Piper

In the meantime, Mark Mifsud Bonnici, secretary of "St Hubertus" Hunters, whose patron saint, legend has it, was ordered by God to stop hunting or else burn in hell, wastes quite a lot of space in today's The Times (in a letter headed "Anti-Hunting Pied Piper" - referring to Arnold Cassola of the green party, the only political party in Malta that is unequivocal in its opposition to Spring hunting), speaking out irrelevancies and making it clear that they are in a state of panic due to the fact that if the European Union (EU) has its way (and this is only a matter of time), they will not be allowed to murder birds in spring anymore.

Considering that all that Mr Mifsud Bonnici writes has already been addressed and debunked by several people, I will not waste any of this blog's space in needless repetition. All I will say is this: No matter what the Nationalist government (which is apparently successful in fooling hunters that spring hunting will be retained) think, and no matter the mixed messages of the Labour party, it is a simple fact that Spring hunting will soon be abolished because it goes against EU regulations.

Get over it, Mr Pied Piper. You may entice a few to your tune, but the rest of us are no fools!