Editor-in-chief of Torca, Orizzont threatened due to anti spring hunting stance

Sandro Mangion, the editor-in-chief of daily newspaper L-Orizzont and Sunday newspaper it-Torca, has been threatened after declaring that he will vote against spring hunting in an upcoming referendum.  

In a Facebook post, Mangion published an extract of the threatening message

“If the referendum on the hobby that my family members and I hold dearest goes through, then YOU [sic] will be the first person that we...” the message read.

The threat came a few days after Mangion announced that he will vote against spring hunting in the April 11 referendum.

“I don’t hate hunters, and I have several hunter friends whom I really respect,” Mangion wrote on his Facebook wall. “Neither am I against the principle of legal hunting for food. When I stop eating fish and the meat of slaughtered animals, then I might be in a position to speak against the hunting of animals for food that doesn’t threaten the species’ future. Just as birds suffer when lead pellets hit them, farm animals also suffer when they are slaughtered and fish when they are fished.

“I am not against legal hunting for the rest of the year.”

Rather, Mangion said that he will vote against spring hunting to render the countryside accessible to everyone in the most beautiful time of the year.

“Buildings have swallowed up a third of our country and most of the countryside is private land,” Mangion wrote. “It is therefore unjust for the little bit of countryside that is accessible to the public to be enjoyed solely by hunters during the most beautiful days of the year.

“Moreover, abolishing spring hunting will not deny hunters the right to enjoy the countryside. They will still be able to visit it with their family members and friends, only without guns in their hands.”

He added that his post reflected his personal opinion and not Union Print’s neutral editorial stance.