Updated1.30pm, adds hunters' statement
Amendments to the Wild Rabbit hunting laws announced a few days ago will give hunters the possibility to hunt in nine out of 12 months.
The amendments grant hunters an additional three months of rabbit hunting from June to August, Birdlife said.
The amendments, to the Environment Protection Act’s Protection of Wild Rabbit Regulations, were announced by the Environment Minister and the Parliamentary Secretary for Animal Rights.
Under the new rules, where previously rabbit hunting licence owners could only practice with the permission of land owners, rabbit hunting was now being allowed in all areas where bird hunting was allowed. The restriction to train dogs with the use of leashes was also removed
Birdlife said that the opening up of huntable areas and use of dogs in all areas during the breeding season of most birds was a cause of disturbance. Moreover, poachers were being given a free roam.
In August, a flock of 18 white storks were wiped out over a week, during the open season for rabbits.
The provisions also covered various Natura 2000 sites where hunting was permitted.
It said this announcement followed hot on the heels of a spring hunting season where enforcement on the ground was at its lowest levels for the past years in Malta.
The situation repeated itself every hunting season, with police not being able to cover enough ground, especially in Gozo, where the Administrative Law Enforcement (ALE) police unit was not permitted to operate.
Birdlife CEO Mark Sultana said Parliamentary Secretary Clint Camilleri continued listening only to the hunting lobby’s request to relax laws, yet did not take heed of the Ornis Committee’s advice to set up a wildlife crime unit.
“Now more than ever, with such lax legislation, the need and onus for enforcement is crucial to ensure that Malta’s environmental laws are respected by one and all,” Mr Sultana said.
Amendments do not change wild rabbit hunting dates - hunters
In a reaction, Kaċċaturi San Ubertu (KSU) said, however, that the amendments made absolutely no change in the dates such hunting is permitted.
KSU said the ludicrous restrictions removed by the new legislation were namely the obligation on the licensee to provide a site plan where rabbit was to be hunted and training rabbit hunting dogs on a leash.
Unlike, Birdlife's trespassing, KSU said, hunters still needed permission to hunt wild rabbit from the owner of any property unless they did not own or lease. Hunting in all areas where entry was permitted to any licensed hunter was now also rightfully unrestricted to the rabbit hunter.
KSU commended the change in legislation, which, it said, removed senseless restrictions.
It unreservedly condemned the way in which all forms of hunting or their regulating was "infallibly criticised" by Birdlife "with the usual misinformation and arrogance" against government and enforcement authorities in line with the organisation's aim to abolish hunting from Malta.