Malta’s spring raises fear of Britain’s wildlife loss

Britain is losing turtle doves and quails, says Sunday Times of London’s wildlife columnist Simon Barnes, as the Maltese government gets ready to once again open the hunting season in spring.

Malta has been allowing hunting in spring for legal targets turtle doves and quails, which migrate from North Africa through Malta and into Europe, ever since its accession to the EU in 2004.

But Barnes, writing in his column, says Britain is losing them and one reason is that birds heading for Britain “are mown down by Mediterranean hunters” when they stop ‘to refuel’ on Malta.

“Yes, those same turtle doves whose numbers have plummeted so disastrously in this country in recent years. That’s no coincidence. I didn’t hear a single one last year; that soft, contented purring passed me by.”

While spring hunting in Malta could now face the scourge of a 40,000 strong petition demanding an abrogative referendum to abolish it, the country still manages to derogate from the EU’s ban on spring hunting.

“It’s actually against EU law… but since Malta came in it has been cherry-picking the benefits without facing up to the obligations,” Barnes writes.

“It would be bad enough if the shooting began and ended with turtle doves and quails, but it doesn’t. Many Maltese hunters shoot illegal quarry, knowing that the chance of getting caught, still less punished, is pretty remote. So they take out many other passing migrants, including songbirds and birds of prey. It seems as if they’ll continue until they – that is to say we – run out of birds.”

“I’ve aimed both barrels of this column at Malta before and I make no apology for doing so again. More shame on the EU for letting the Maltese get away with it year after year. I will, however, apologise if I have ever seemed to imply that everyone in Malta is out there feeling like God, with a warm gun and a heap of dead birds,” Barnes says.

In fact he pays tribute to BirdLife Malta, whom he says has “one of the most disagreeable jobs in world conservation”.

Under Maltese laws, the petition by the Coalition Against Spring Hunting means that the Electoral Commission must organise an abrogative referendum asking people whether they want to retain spring hunting or not.

“That’s a serious petition. If the Maltese government ignores it, it goes beyond breaking the laws of the EU. It defies the basic principle of democracy.

“So once again as spring arrives I send the best wishes of this column to those people at the sharp end of this vexatious and tenacious issue, and with it greetings to the overwhelming majority of the Maltese people who find the spring hunting an act of barbarism unjustifiable in the 21st century.”