ghalgolhajt.com is one living example why you can never reason with these people.

They have monopoly of the truth; everything everyone else says is lies and rubbish.

Truly għal ġol-ħajt. And if you think you’re taking the rest of us with you, we’re not done just yet.

Stuffed turtle dove? Or turtle dove soup? You must have looked up pigeon recipes, because turtle doves are never cooked that way.

Birds downed by multiple shots followed by arguments as to who shot them?

I never read so much rubbish and lies in two lines.

Obvously you haven’t a clue what you are talking about.

Turtledoves in the UK were so abundant that they didn’t bother how many were killed on migration.

Today the smaller and smaller population is only raising 1.5 birds per breeding season, not enough to sustain the population.

The situation is so bad that Operation Turtledove has been launched in the UK.

France has now officially stated that the turtledove population there is down by 23 per cent.

World’s Rarest Birds (2013) has just said that the turtle dove might be on the threatened species list next, and Malta is one of the reasons.

Then what are they going to shoot at?

Dr. Busuttil had every reason to declare that he has to vote in favour of spring hunting (though how he will actually vote is of course unknown), since he spent so much time and energy on defending that position.

Naturally consistency does not breed in Labour quarters, so you try to denigrate him.

I am sure that what really irks the PL is that Busuttil has not fallen into Muscat’s ‘trabokk’ (pun intended), which would have made this referendum another red or blue election.

Now, if Muscat is to be believed, he should not put any more spokes into the NO vote and let the people decide freely. On my part, and all my family, a big NOOOOOOO to spring hunting.

What is your point?

Is your way of dealing with this to drive a species to the point of extinction and THEN perhaps do something about it?

That’s a game you can play with your car and others of the same bent, not with wildlife.

And if you want to argue numbers, there’s no doubt in my mind that they were orders of magnitude more plentiful then than they are now.

Hardly ever did my father and brothers come home from their early morning run without a bagful – soups and stuffed turtle-dove or quail casserole were the order of the day back then.

Now they’ve all given up, some even before 2004, the reason being that nowadays more often than not a bird is downed by multiple shots, each from a different gun, followed by arguments about who shot what.

Being told by someone what used to happen 40 years ago is hardly any scientific evidence. Point is, let’s stop hunting birds when they are breeding.

The IUCN list does indeed say it is LC, but the decline is well documented.

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/nature_studies/nature-studies-the-disappearing-turtle-dove-8607728.html

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/dec/09/decline-uk-countryside-birds

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/aug/30/british-birds-at-risk-of-extinction-warblers-rspb

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-29728558

I’m sure there must be some reason as to the discrepancy, Perhaps someone more knowledgeable will enlighten us.

[Daphne – That there were literally ‘clouds’ of turtle doves is something I was told by people who used to hunt in the 1970s. ]

I’m sure you had similar stats in hand when you took your decision to support spring hunting.

So now you told us that you’d rather not break your promise to a few thousand voters and instead take us down this unsustainable route.

Your act is turning out to be more shameful by the day.

Forget the hunters; you’re losing your resonance with the electorate in general, Dr Busuttil.