Hunting's impact on tourism

Lino Farrugia, secretary of the hunters' federation FKNK, goes to great lengths to try to dissuade readers from the reality of the local hunting situation. He also chooses to attribute to me the title of tourism "expert", a title that I neither purport nor desire to hold.

In his frenzy to shoot down whoever is critical of the local hunting and trapping excesses, Mr Farrugia totally misses the point. Nowhere in my comments to The Times journalist (October 28) did I refer to the performance of Malta's tourism arrivals.

If Mr Farrugia (or the FKNK, for all that matters) cares to look at facts and circumstances, not faces or colours, and calls a spade a spade, then the findings of the MHRA survey should have him groping for anything but a shotgun to while away his time.

Of the 20 per cent of tourists who reported a "major negative impact" from hunting and trapping, 19 percentage points said they had this experience between March and May. That means 95 per cent of them! The MHRA report further confirms - "practically all the negative comments originated during the hunting open season". Does it take an expert to understand these figures and comments?

Mr Farrugia claims there is more enforcement now than in 1998. Where, we ask? In just a little pocket of land as Buskett? What about Mizieb and l-Ahrax - areas so proudly well-kept by the FKNK, and Dingli, Salib ta' l-Gholja, Mgarr, Delimara, Tal-Handaq, Nadur, Ghajn Tuffieha, Wardija, Gozo etc!

It is useless for Mr Farrugia to quote the average number of hunters per square kilometre in Malta. If they make a negative impact, then this is a fact and the option is to control them. If Mr Farrugia is short of ideas, we can help, such as by raising the minimum hunting age back to 21 years, or introducing permanent forfeiture of the hunting/trapping licence for the law offenders.

It is a well-known fact that many tourists stay away from our country during the bird migration seasons because they cannot accept the indiscriminate and widespread hunting and trapping that take place.

If Malta wants to increase tourist arrivals in the shoulder months (as in March and April), it cannot afford to have its tourists affected negatively in any way. At the end of the day, the fact remains that some radical decisions need to be taken, like altogether stopping hunting and trapping in spring. The signs are there for all to see, including our politicians. We either blame it on them or on the hunters!