Is this a sickness, like alcoholism and compulsive gambling, or what?
So they shot that flamingo and killed it. It was under police guard at Salina, but it flew off and the police left. Then it returned, at night and was shot.
A couple of people saw it happen and reported the matter to the police. They heard shots at around midnight, then saw a young man splashing through the water carrying a dead flamingo. He put it on the ground, then somebody else drove up in the getaway car and the bird was loaded into it.
The car then drove off with screeching tyres, leaving blood and feathers on the spot, but not before somebody took the number. This took the police to a home in Burmarrad (no, not that one) and a search yielded other dead birds of protected species, but not the flamingo.
In the getaway car, the police found flamingo feathers.
The parliamentary secretary for hunters, Roderick Galdes, described this as “barbaric” and condemned it “without reservations”. But quite frankly, politicians of that stripe play a large part in this kind of behaviour because they encourage it directly and indirectly by allowing hunters to think that they can get away with anything under Labour.
Wasn’t that a big part of Labour’s electoral campaign message to hunters? And haven’t they started off on the wrong foot by lifting the licence fee and the obligation of hunters to wear ‘licensed’ armbands?
Perhaps it’s time politicians fully understood how shocking we non-hunters find this obsession with destroying things of beauty so very pointlessly – yes, even those species which are not protected. What exactly is the point of destroying birds for fun?
As for the description of how the flamingo was killed and the body taken away, it’s just like a murder, isn’t it. That’s how these sick people planned and executed it.
32 Comments Comment
Leave a Comment
Labour hopped into the sack with the hunters while still in opposition, but now that they ‘have the power’, their bed-partner isn’t looking quite so attractive – the morning after, so to speak.
So glad this case was solved so quickly, and arrests made.
And some people feel insulted when they are told that some hunters in Malta are just savages.
The PL did not help matters by lifting the licence fee and the obligation for hunters to wear licensed arm-bands – but then the PL wanted the hunters’ vote and that is more important.
Now the PL should reverse its decisions if it wants to be believed or better still call a referendum for the banning of hunting in Malta.
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/call-for-ban-of-bird-hunting-and-trapping-in-malta.html
For once in my entire life I will agree with you 100%.
These people have conducted a planned murder and they SHOULD be treated like they did a murder.. with a lengthy jail sentence.
Am I hoping too much if someday, some brave parliamentarian decides to press for a referendum on hunting in Malta?
Who knows how much it will fetch on the black market?
Burmarrad? My God! Is there something we should be told?
Dawn imsieken probabbli kienu bil-guh (tort ta’ Gonzi) u ghamluh stuffat il-flamingu.
These so-called hunters are barbarians and Roderick Galdes cannot express horror at their act while trying to find a loophole in EU hunting regulations to ingratiate himself with the hunting lobby.
This sends conflicting messages to blood-thirsty illiterates with shotguns, irrespective of what their association says.
I think this should be Top Comment for this week.
I fully concur.
Once these people will not understand the civil way then perhaps all shotguns should be kept under custody at the police armory in between hunting seasons and released only then.
Apart from being a barbaric sport, the lead shot enters the food chain and is detrimental to our health.
Lead poisoning can cause permanent brain damage and can have a wide range of effects on a child’s development.
‘Lead poisoning can cause permanent brain damage’. Yes, perhaps that’s why handling and loading shotgun shells (hunters do make their own) has created so many dimwits.
Effin’ right lead-poisoning causes brain damage – just look at the election result.
Issa qed jikkundanna is-Sur Galdes! Mela nesa li ftit gimghat ilu hareg jiddefendi lill-kaccaturi?
I used to think that most hunters are past a certain age, but I was very wrong. Recently, hunters being taken to court are in their 20s. Even the four hunters who decimated trees in Mellieha some years ago were that young!
I also know, thanks to Facebook, that a good number of hunters are in the army and police force, probably because they have some kind of fetish with guns.
Don’t blame the hunter. Maybe he found Roderick’s loophole.
Roderick Galdes sympatises with hunters and he was put in charge of animal welfare.
Let’s get us a paedophile to run state kindergartens.
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/call-for-ban-of-bird-hunting-and-trapping-in-malta/signatures-page5.html
Over 700 have added their signature to this petition since this morning. Please add yours if you haven’t signed already.
Done – thank you for the link.
I am still curious to know what was agreed secretly between the hunters and Joseph Muscat before the election.What is for sure is that Joseph managed to win thousands of votes from these hunters.
While the world is progressively going vegan, these psychopaths carry on wiping the little fauna Malta’s got left!
I think that for some so-called hunters, this activity is more than just a hobby. Such behaviour indicates a pathological compulsion that is undeterred by the risk of fines.
These people really need psychological help and I am not being sarcastic here.
How can a quick shot at the helpless flamingo in the middle of the night be fun? I must admit I cannot imagine any form of hunting being fun but rather a kind of sadistic pleasure, but this goes way beyond.
How unspeakably barbaric.
The LP proven actions of aiding and abetting the hunting lobby to seek “loopholes”, to increase the bird slaughter by making it cheaper, and to render law enforcement more difficult by removing arm bands, speak much louder than hollow expressions of mock grief at the killing of this beautiful flamingo.
The LP has everything in its favour to abolish this senseless slaughter. If it doesn’t do it, it is because it does not want to do it. It could earn the gratitude of a majority of voters because, unlike the NP, it is not hamstrung by disloyal M.Ps. threatening to cross the carpet when government has only a majority of one.
These killers should get prison sentence not a fine. Shame on them.
We will have the usual thing. Charges dropped due to lack of evidence.
What is so good about a dead flamingo?
What use is it to anyone?
[Daphne – They look at it the other way round. What good is it out in the wild? Majtezwel be stuffed in a garage near the television set, where I can look at it every night.]
With that kind of logic they might as well kill and stuff their pet cat or dog.
The bonus is that they don’t have to feed it after the deed is done.
Hell, why stop there, kill and taxidermy the wife and even the kids.
Now that is one hell of an idea for some peace and quiet around the house.
The financial savings in the long run would be phenomenal.
There is big money in the sale of song birds , birds of prey and large birds .
Overhearing a bird catcher mentioning that he paid €5000 euros for leasing for the open season a peice of land near the Hal Far cliffs and explaining that in a good week he earns the amount, shows the financial incentives behind this “HOBBY”. Who would jump inside the Salina at the dead of night for a simple hobby.
What about doing the same for €2000?
Galdes irrezenja.
What are the views and comments of our head of the house committee on economic and financial affairs, u espert tal-kesha, Silvio Schembri who is also Favur il-Kacca u l-Insib, about this brutal episode?
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/call-for-ban-of-bird-hunting-and-trapping-in-malta.html
I wonder where the Animal Rights Parliamentary Secretary is now? Still somehow in favour of hunting, I presume?