Time to let the people decide on spring hunting

This week's massacre of at least 12 Booted eagles - a bird whose conservation status is classified as 'of concern' in Europe, and which is certainly considered a rare visitor to Malta - was reminiscent in most respects of the many similar massacres of protected birds we have witnessed over the years.

As always, people reacted with indignation and revulsion, and among the many organisations to condemn the massacre were (predictably) the hunters' own associations and federations. At government level, the knee-jerk response was to double the penalties for illegal hunting.

But there was a significant difference: for all the national outcry, the massacre continued over the following days, with two more eagles likewise shot in almost exactly the same place the day after.

The implications are inescapable. By doggedly persisting with illegal activity even after their actions were flagged and the penalties increased accordingly, the perpetrators have communicated a clear message to the authorities and general public alike... including to the clubs and associations that claim to speak on behalf of hunters.

The message was one of open defiance and disobedience: the equivalent of sticking up one's middle finger at society as a whole. And considering that this same message comes from a minority that has bullied and intimidated this country for decades, one can infer that we are in fact dealing with a criminal underbelly that genuinely believes it is both outside and above the law.

This poses a number of very serious questions for the authorities tasked with law enforcement, and with the protection of the ordinary citizen against criminals such as the perpetrators of this cowardly act.

People in this country are justifiably beginning to feel betrayed and neglected by an establishment that has traditionally always been more keen to placate an unruly, disobedient and quite frankly delinquent minority, than in observing the rule of law.

And coming so soon after government strongly condemned the incident, the decision to simply carry on shooting protected birds as if nothing happened also illustrates the complete powerlessness of Malta's law enforcement capability to deal with the sheer scale of illegal hunting in Malta.

From this perspective, what we are looking at is a direct challenge to the authority of a government which has clearly lost control of this decidedly ugly situation. This would be worrying enough even if the present government took its own commitments to protect wildlife seriously. But the Labour administration rose to power in part on a promise to give more concessions to an already spoilt and pampered minority; as a result, hunters understandably feel that government is there to do their own bidding. Small wonder, then, that a group of armed delinquents would so easily humiliate the country by simply treating it as an extension of their own backyard.

In a sense, none of this should come as a surprise. Labour is not the only political party to have traded its principles for votes on this issue. The Nationalist Party had 25 years in government to do something about a clearly chaotic situation: yet all it ever did was relax regulations, and secure more concessions on behalf of the hunters from the EU.

It is particularly disappointing to note that the European Commission has likewise proved ineffectual - not only failing to prevent government from defying community law by opening a spring hunting season, but actually compounding the situation by initiating action in the European Court of Justice... and losing the case.

Faced with all this political pusillanimity, one is left wondering who, if anyone, still speaks on behalf of the ordinary law-abiding citizen who is understandably fed up of the whole unpleasant situation.

From this perspective, the petition organised by a coalition of environmental NGOs and one political party (AD) now looks like the only course of action left, if the man in the street is to assert himself against a minority that has blackmailed the country for too long.

This newspaper initially had reservations about the wisdom of going to the polls on this matter: mainly because the target of 40,000 signatures to force an abrogative referendum remains daunting by any standard.

Nonetheless, in between European indifference and the complicity of successive governments in an ongoing environmental crime, we are left with no option but to turn to the electorate in the hope that decency and common sense will prevail over brutish ignorance and loutish behaviour.

It is for this reason that MaltaToday has inserted a copy of the national petition for an abrogative on spring hunting in today's issue. While the petition does not call for a total ban on hunting - which would be excessive - if successful it will go some distance towards allowing migratory birds safe passage at least during the breeding season: thus hopefully offsetting some of the damage caused by criminals who cannot and will not be controlled through any other means.

Now that Malta's ruling political elite has washed its hands of the situation, and Europe has proved unwilling or unable to impact the situation in any way, it now falls to the ordinary voter to stand up and be counted.

Justice in this issue is only a signature away.