The No campaign has to start by explaining what a derogation is
This is what a turtle dove looks like. If we’re going to be discussing them for the next two months, you’d better know that much at least.
Have you noticed the standard refrain on social media, on the internet comments board and in bar-room conversations? Because it’s getting louder and louder.
“If the rest of Europe can shoot birds in spring, then why shouldn’t we. We’re not special. We don’t have to be more European than the Europeans.”
Didn’t the Labour Party’s deputy leader, Toni Abela, just say something like that too? That’s when you know that we really have a problem unless he was just playing stupid for cynical purposes.
Because of course, Malta IS special. We are the only member state allowed to shoot turtle doves in spring. This is because we have a derogation (exemption, for want of a better way to explain it) from the law which applies to all other EU member states, a law which bars them from shooting these birds in spring.
We are the special ones, but we are not special in a good way. We are special in a way that’s bad for the European turtle dove population and that’s why the people in our fellow member states are angry at us: because we are special.
They’re not angry at us because we are allowed to kill turtle doves in spring and they are not. They’re angry at us because we’re killing birds that do not belong to us but are part of our common European heritage. They’re angry at us because they work like blazes at conservation while we pop birds out of the sky while they’re on their way back to those other EU member states to nest and breed.
So will the No campaign please, pretty please, start by explaining to the electorate what a derogation is, that the rest of Europe is not allowed to shoot turtle doves in spring and there is no justifiable reason why we should be the anti-social exception just because we can, and that we are not being hard put upon but rather the opposite.
Yes, that we are indeed being treated as a special case, but not because of the pressure to end spring hunting because our fellows in Europe did that years ago. We are a special case because we are allowed to shoot birds in spring.
You know how there’s always one a*rsehold at a bar or at a party? Well, right now Malta is that a*rsehold at the party.
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So why did the PN fight so hard for a derogation in the first place? I guess because becoming part of the EU was far more important than the poor turtle doves.
Fenech Adami’s government was extremely hard pressed to do something to appease the few hunters wanting to vote Yes in the EU referendum.
At the time, he faced an extremely fierce and dishonest battle against joining the EU, by the Labour Party and the GWU.
I think the hunters’ arrogance and defiance of the law is the heaviest price we have paid and are still paying for that No to EU campaign.
To explain that to the masses, one needs to engage a professional production company to create a top-notch animation showing turtle dove spring migration over Malta to Europe and splash it regularly on prime time TV.
I beg to differ on this one.
The EU Commission has absolutely no issue with the spring hunting derogations as applied by both the PN and Labour in government to date. The European Court of Justice case simply confirmed the ornithological fact that turtle doves and quail are only.present in autumn in very limited numbers and areas, and as such the autumn season cannot be considered an alternative to the spring season in Malta’s case.
The quantities allowed are a minuscule fraction of those shot in Europe, in autumn, and well, well below the parameters allowed within the very Birds Directive itself. Both populations are described by no less that Birdlife International as having a conservation status of “least concern”.
Illegal hunting during ANY season is abhorrent and already illegal in any case. The penalties put some other crimes to shame.
As to the “reclaiming the countryside bit, well, we’re talking about 19 half-days here – as opposed to a pre-EU spring season of two and a half months. Oh, and for 32 species.
This issue has been warped, twisted and blown out of all proportion.
Andrew,
The fact that the number of turtle doves and quails in spring is higher than that in autumn (albeit the data compiled by hunters’ themselves is heavily skewed due to obvious vested interests), does not justify killing them before they breed.
Moreover, by the same argument if 12 different species of bird migrate through Malta each on a different month, you will want a open season all year round.
The ‘least concern’ you quoted related previously to population worldwide – however the trends in Europe are worrisome – whereas in Malta avian fauna is still a pie in the sky.
The April spring hunting days, overlap the Easter holidays which most families look forward to, in order to spend quality time enjoying Nature blossoming (by Malta’s standards).
Moreover when one considers that hunters have five full months from September to January, wherein they can kill a wider variety of birds, not to mention the summer hunting excuse for wild rabbit, it becomes evident that, at best, hunters deem that their taste buds have overriding priority over our limited countryside – within such an overpopulated island.
The undeniable fact that time and again, hunters have killed protected birds also in spring (thus no breeding for these either), and inexplicably without ever being identified let alone turned in by their peers, confirms that during a spring hunting season such criminals can mingle around and persist in their vile acts without much concern.
I hope you are following the Enemalta debate.
Looks like they read the guest posts:
https://www.facebook.com/SpringHuntingOut/photos/a.347699575431742.1073741831.346984598836573/349285765273123/?type=1&theater
[Daphne – That’s good, but it needs fine-tuning. Malta IS in Europe, so birds don’t pass over Malta to get to Europe. They pass over Malta to get to parts of Europe that are further north. Also, it starts off from the assumption that people know what migration is. Most people don’t. No, they don’t know that some bird species spend the winter in Africa and the summer in northern Europe, and that’s why they are called ‘migratory’. It is lethal to assume knowledge in a society where the level of education is disastrously poor.]
With people like Moira Delia, cooking quails on a TV program belonging to Saviour Balzan’s media house, who is also on the forefront of the campaign, we might as well vote in favour of hunting
Maybe those quails were shot in the autumn. Because you know, killing a quail in the autumn gives it more time to be resurrected to reproduce the following spring.
Hunting for conservation is like f*cking for virginity.
WIXEN GEGEN FRÜHJAHRSJAGD!
It’s been proven that it’s possible. This government has been making one f*ck-up after the other, and it is still considered to be a virgin, Malta Today surveys show.
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2015-01-19/local-news/Watch-We-can-win-anti-spring-hunting-referendum-even-without-the-votes-of-16-year-olds-6736128995
Article came out on Monday:
“The coalition launched its referendum campaign on Saturday. Its aim is to empower people to join its ranks to put a stop to “unsustainable spring hunting.” Ms Tolu says the main reason behind all of this is the birds; spring hunting is destructive to migratory birds that fly over Malta on their way to their breeding grounds.”
[…]
It also seems that, because our campaign has not been launched yet (the interview was conducted on Thursday), many people out there are still not well-informed about the referendum and the subject at hand.
[…]
“We will be explaining that spring hunting is not sustainable. The number of birds shot down over Malta during spring is definitely affecting bird populations. Hunters have all of autumn to hunt in. The autumn hunting season can be sustainable if properly regulated and we have no quarrel with that issue. Autumn hunting is allowed by the EU but spring hunting is not.”
[Daphne – The logical fallacy in that last bit is that the birds shot in autumn are the very same ones which then won’t be able to migrate in spring. Whether they are shot in autumn or shot in spring, they are still eliminated from the breeding equation.]
https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/10422943_10152970931040781_8829521341161383400_n.jpg?oh=a9b421fdfa5e7b8969fab28d43babdd6&oe=5562808A&__gda__=1433304821_5c71ce7ac4ff0d7a5c217d10506d7fd4
“The multiculture is makeing you run.”
This needs to be on a T-shirt.
Why don’t you try putting up a picture of a quail now ?…not so pretty but still hunted under the derogation, I’m sure most of the NO voters have never seen one.
To set the record straight, birds migrate over land and avoid tracts of sea as far as possible and this is a scientific fact. The majority of turtle doves are migrating from mainland Europe basically Spain into Morocco, north Africa. The unfortunate few that pass over our island are so called “stray birds” that have strayed away from migration lines .
[Daphne – Most people know what a quail looks like, and if they don’t, this country really does have problems.]