Hunters accuse Muscat of 'betrayal' over closure of spring hunting season

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat yesterday ordered the immediate closure of the spring hunting season after a kestrel - a protected bird of prey - was shot by a hunterand fell into the football pitch of St. Edward’s College in Cottenera while the students were on their lunch break.

"Despite sharp decline in illegalities, today's hunting incident is inexcusable. I have decided to immediately close the season," the Prime Minister said in a tweet.

Following the Prime Minister’s bold decision, many hunters posted their angry reactions to the decision on their Facebook profiles.

Many of the hunters have expressed their anger at the Prime Minister’s decision and said that they felt it was a ‘betrayal’, with many even threatening to abstain from voting in future elections. One user in particular said he would start a collection of the voting documents in protest to this reaction.

Many hunters stressed that they felt that the decision to close the spring hunting season had been unfair given that many of the hunters were suffering for the inappropriate actions of others. 

“Muscat was a little too quick on the trigger with his decision and he didn’t realise that he is being undermined by other parties and BirdLife,” writes one Facebook user.

Another user even went so far as to compare Muscat to Hitler and added that both party leaders had favoured foreigners and immigrants at the detriment of Maltese citizens.

“We need to show political parties that we are not just a number or a political football they can pass around right ahead of elections, only to abandon us immediately after. Now is the time for us to unite!” exclaimed another user.

Many other hunters reacted even more dramatically, sometimes even threatening to kill themselves as a result of the decision.

Others still urged the FKNK to investigate the case which led to the premature end of the hunting season, hinting at the possibility of a conspiracy in order to shed a bad light on hunters.

CEO of hunting federation FKNK, Lino Farrugia, reacted soon after the news broke saying;

 “We never agreed with collective punishment: we disagreed with it in 2007; we disagreed with it during the closure of the last season and we disagree with it today.”

Farrugia added that FKNK was carrying out its own investigations into the case and added that “there was no proof as yet on who shot the bird or whether it was a licenced hunter”.

Reiterating that whoever shot the protected bird was “a criminal”, Farrugia insisted that the FKNK would see what steps it could take and asked to specify, he reiterated that collective punishment was not on and that “it only happens in Malta”.

“This is not flagrant abuse … shooting at a bird which is not rare … It was a wrong act but why should I be blamed for it as well?” Farrugia said, adding that he hadn’t shot once this season because of the poor weather. In fact, hunters had their hopes up for the coming two days after today’s change in weather.
St. Hubert’s Hunters (KSU) similarly condemned the incident and questioned why hunting should be permitted outside the perimeter of a school.

“It is inconceivable, considering the exemplary behaviour of the absolute majority of hunters during the season, that few still persist with such criminal behaviour,” KSU President Mark Mifsud Bonnici said. 

Following the Yes campaign’s win of the spring hunting referendum on the 11th April, FKNK representatives had held a a press conference at their offices where they warned hunters to abide by the law, and said that no illegalities would be tolerated.

“The FKNK will not tolerate any abuses. No hunter who breaches the law will find refuge here,” FKNK president Perici Calascione had said.

“Perhaps the measures that were in place until today were fragile, but we now need to collaborate with the police to see how we can strengthen them. Hunters have a lot to lose and they will not cover for abusive hunters,” he had insisted.