‘Tell kids they’re eating a dead animal’: Hunters want children’s and animal commissioners sacked

Malta’s hunting lobby wants the government to sack its Children’s Commissioner and Animal Welfare Commissioner over comments they passed about children accompanying relatives on hunting outings.

The Federation for Hunting and Conservation (FKNK) said it wanted children’s commissioner Pauline Miceli and animal rights czar Alison Bezzina removed for having “expressed their personal emotional beliefs when making comments in support of BirdLife Malta’s latest anti-hunting campaign to ban children and youths from accompanying hunters while hunting.”

Miceli complained that children should not be exposed to the use of firearms, calling it child abuse, while Bezzina said that children exposed to hunting become desensitised to animal cruelty.

“The latter does not even seem aware that the Animal Welfare Act by which she is bound expressly excludes hunting! Thus, the FKNK believes that by such and similar emotional personal belief official statements, both Commissioners have overstepped and abused their official positions,” FKNK chief executive Lino Farrugia said.

Farrugia said the FKNK would take all legal action at its disposal, including the taking to the streets in protest, if the commissioners are not sacked.

Farrugia asked whether youths should not even be exposed to sports shooting in disciplines that take place even during the Olympics.

“Shouldn’t children, and probably also some adults, be knowledgeable to the reality that the meat they eat, at home and during several festivities and celebrations, entails the death of an animal, and that this does not just happen on supermarkets’ shelves or freezers’ chests,” Farrugia said.

“The essential nutrient proteins from the game meat in season and venison at the table that only hunters can ‘afford’; the rabbits at the traditional Imnarja feast; the lamb in Easter; pig roast and horse meat eaten during several local village feasts; and the turkey at Christmas. What next?

“Will the children who are exposed to the use of fishing rods and harpoons while fishing be labelled as being abused and desensitised by the Commissioners?”

READ MORE: Children exposed to hunting become desensitised to animal cruelty, commissioner says

Green Party (APDD) chairperson Carmel Cacopardo reacted to the statement saying the FKNK was once again showing its irresponsible behaviour.

“This is a matter we have grown accustomed to over the years. The statement made by the Commissioner for Children and the Commissioner for Animal Welfare that children should be kept away from hunting activities and the associated arms is appropriate and should be implemented immediately. At ADPD we have full confidence in the Commissioner for Children and the Commissioner for Animal Welfare. We ought to thank them continuously for their endeavours on behalf of the whole community. Their actions throughout the years have been continuously ethical.”