The news that the spring hunting season is once again going to be reopened comes as no surprise. After all, this cruel practice has been sanctioned by our weak governments for years despite breaching the EU’s Birds Directive.

But let’s just forget the fact that, year-in, year-out, Malta comes with the most imaginative reasons to fool the European Commission that we’re doing things by the book. Let’s also ignore Malta’s latest bizarre theory sold to Brussels that it intends to continue allowing trappers to capture protected songbirds on grounds that it “helps collect scientific data” on species’ migration. 

At this stage, we need to seriously question why the hunting lobby has become untouchable when the entire country is being told to make sacrifices to keep a deadly virus at bay.

Everybody – from families to the elderly to sports organisations to artists to the Church – is being told to, once again, make a big sacrifice to try to contain the spread of COVID-19 by staying indoors. The vast majority will abide by the largely unspoken pact because they respect others and realise that without a concerted effort we are merely going to extend the virus’s life.

Yet, the government’s consultative body on hunting, the so-called Ornis committee, is scheduled to meet today to discuss the opening of a three-week hunting season. Times of Malta is informed it has already been green-lit by Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri, himself a hunter, who has taken over responsibility for hunting from his cabinet colleague, Environment Minister Aaron Farrugia.

The hunting federation has already invited members to apply for a special licence to hunt.

If you carry a gun and you intend to shoot birds, then you don’t need to abide by the partial lockdown

Once again, in a repeat of last year, when the virus numbers were only a fraction of what we’re facing now, the message coming from the government is clear: if you carry a gun and you intend to shoot birds, then you don’t need to abide by the partial lockdown. It is insulting knowing that you’re likely to land a fine if you’re out for a walk in the countryside and your mask happens to slip below your nose!

Police and law enforcement authorities are stretched beyond their limit in an unprecedented task to try to contain a frustrated island of half a million people reeling from COVID-fatigue. So why are we going to put more pressure on them to enforce the law on a lobby which has repeatedly proven to be out of control?

Or is it OK to have a repeat of last year’s bird massacre, labelled by Birdlife Malta as the worst-ever for illegal poaching of protected species?

The law-abiding citizen who respects the environment has simply had enough of the political class that continues to bend over backwards to placate the hunting and trapping lobby. And this includes the new Nationalist Party administration, which has already indicated that it is prepared to continue where its predecessors left off by treating hunters with kid gloves.

We need to continue asking why the persistence of preferential treatment of what is, ultimately, nothing more than a vociferous minority that has bullied its way through by threatening with its vote. We can only hope that, one day, our parliamentarians realise the repercussions of pandering to the hunters’ votes the same way the US political class is finally realising the deleterious impact of supporting the National Rifle Association.

But, at this stage, the issue transcends any preconceived notions of hunting. This is about basic respect towards one another, the law enforcement and the health authorities. It is about stopping one lobby from stepping out of line with the rest of society, even if it holds you at gunpoint.