Hunters fire broadside at hotels association

The Federation for Hunting and Conservation has rebutted charges levelled by the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association that hunting is harming tourism and pointed an accusing finger at the industry itself.

In an open letter to Justin Zammit Tabona, the president of the MHRA, federation president Lino Farrugia said it was very evident that Mr Zammit Tabona had "very little, or no knowledge at all, about the local tradition of hunting... when blaming hunting for problems tourism is encountering at present".

The MHRA, he said, should address the real issues affecting tourism: uncontrolled building in tourism zones, the resultant mess and dust left uncollected on pavements and streets, the general shabbiness of the islands in general, disastrous roads and pavements, unorthodox measures by essential service providers to hotels, overcharging by service providers, and malicious journalism about tourism, both local and foreign.

"You can rest assured that the thousands of hunters who are directly or indirectly involved in tourism are responsible enough not to allow the practice of their passion to harm their very livelihood," said Mr Farrugia.

"However, unfortunately there are always those few who persist in breaking hunting regulations, something that our federation has always condemned and continuously works towards curbing, just as there are maybe not so few drivers that continue to break driving regulations.

"The influence of some other anti-hunting entity is once again evident when you use emotional words such as 'slaughter'; your lack of information about the subject matter is yet again very manifest when you applaud the donation of a power boat to the police to assist in the curbing of sea-borne illegal hunters.  

"Patrolling of the coastline for illegal hunting at this time of year is a waste of public time and money. If you want our opinion, patrolling for illegal immigrants would make more sense," Mr Farrugia said.