Respect for birders

Tina Hahl writes that she would like to back the Minister of the Environment's appeal to bird lovers and hunters to remain objective in their remarks. Her own remarks in her letter (May 19) about "certain notorious circles on Malta", which she claims "have been feeding poison to international groups and websites..." and should come "forward with a positive contribution of their own..." betray her call for objectivity and makes one wonder what her agenda is.

While the efforts of the ALE officers are truly laudable, and their success - taking into account the very small number of ALE officers in the face of about 21,000 hunters - is remarkable, one has to state matter-of-factly that the ALE Unit is terribly understaffed and underfunded and therefore its work cannot be more than a drop of water in the sea.

If "notorious circles on Malta" (who is Tina Hahl referring to, by the way?) inform the international community for example about the above mentioned discrepancy between the staggering number of hunters and the comparatively minute numbers of ALE officers it cannot be called "feeding poison". It should be called "raising awareness" by responsible citizens to better the rules and laws in our society (which now is part of an even bigger entity - the EU), something every democratic society should strive to do.

I share Ms Hahl's praise for the work of the ALE officers, but at the same time I would like to praise the dedication of all the restless groups, parties and individuals in Malta and abroad involved in the protection of birds either by raising awareness, funding campaigns (for example, the German group Komitee gegen den Vogelmord gave a strong outboard motor to the ALE to enable the officers to enforce the control of hunters on the sea), supporting bird groups in Malta and abroad, or caring for injured birds - to name only a few actions.

And I think it would be fair if Ms Hahl could also show them some respect and objectivity.