‘If I don’t shoot it, someone else will, so I’d rather shoot it myself’: the basis of the Maltese approach to pretty much everything, summed up in one quote in an article in The Telegraph
The article (link below) includes this bit about Malta:
The place most notorious for dove hunting is probably Malta. The small Mediterranean island has a sophisticated attachment to bird trapping and hunting, which, for many male Maltese, are a source of recreation, a statement of both national and gender-oriented identities and a way of maintaining long-established cultural traditions.
While hunting was once a major source of subsistence protein, rising standards of living have not seen the activity substantially diminish. For the last 25 years there have been between 14,000 and 17,000 registered hunters or trappers (in a total population of about 350,000).
Their cumulative bag, scattered indiscriminately across scores of species, most of which are not eaten, was assumed in 1990 to be between 2.6 million and 5.8 million birds. In that year, the annual turtle dove kill was put at 160,000 - 480,000 birds, although this has since declined substantially and this part of the bag at least enjoyed the rationale of the cooking pot.
What is most striking about the continuing slaughter of turtle doves – estimated across the whole European Union as between two and four million birds annually – is its conflict with the logic generated by the species’ massive systemic declines. In the last 30 years the turtle dove across 16 European Union countries has suffered a 70 per cent reduction on its 1980 population. In Britain it is 90 per cent.
Yet under pressure from the highly vocal and important hunting lobby, the Maltese government has sought, since 2004, an exclusion from legislation that bans hunting of declining species. What seems most striking is the frame of argument used to justify the killing of protected species: the Maltese government argued that the turtle dove, while it may be in plight locally, had large (and, it should be added, largely unknown) numbers in countries such as Russia and Turkey. At a global level, therefore, this rendered it a species of least concern. In 2009 the argument was rejected and Malta judged in breach of international legislation by the European Court.
For his part, the Maltese hunter on the ground applied much the same logic. ‘If I don’t shoot it, someone else will, so I’d rather shoot it myself,’ one individual explained when asked why he killed as he did. The argument is revealing for drawing its primary meaning from competition among the hunters, and also for its utter lack of reference to the prey itself.
It is, in truth, not a rationale for hunting. That surely requires some imaginative transaction, some ecological linkage, between the hunter and his target. To justify the killing as a means to pre-empt one’s predatory competitors is little more than a charter for the quarry’s eventual extinction.
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/10188613/The-birds-that-flew-back-from-the-dead.html
The National Geographic magazine (June edition) labelled Malta as a killing hotspot along with other Mediterranean countries, Italy, Albania, Israel & Egypt. Every year millions of songbirds migrating to and from Northern Europe are killed for fun. This madness must stop, especially in Spring when the young birds are being reared. Its such a shame that such lawlessness still thrives in this day and age.
What “killing hotspot” are you on about? We get a teeny fraction of the total migration in the Maltese Islands, and even that is completely subject to weather conditions at the time. The closest migratory highway is 150km away, go figure!
Songbirds are (were!) traditionally trapped in Malta, not shot and eaten. You must be referring to Italy, France, Cyprus etc. where they are considered delicacies. Organized crime is also allegedly heavily involved.
Turtle doves are NOT songbirds; they are considered game birds and 2-4 million are bagged annually. The main reasons attributed to the declines mentioned in EU countries are actually: the EU’s abysmal failure called the Common Agricultural Policy, habitat loss, pesticides and intensive farming practices. And, to give you a sense of perspective, 2 dozen doves bagged in 2 MONTHS in Spring (pre-EU days) was considered a decent bag.
Oh, and hunting is a heavily regulated FULLY LEGAL pastime.
Perhaps some research would help, before you shoot off your mouth and write rubbish just to get in your 10 cent’s worth.
When you live in a place with 1,300 inhabitants per square kilometre, you have to give up some of your hobbies. That’s the bottom line.
Hunting is NOT a heavily regulated pastime in Malta. It should be, but our politicians are either hunters themselves with a vseted interest or ‘senza palle’.
Just for the record. Birds shot in spring over Malta do not have “young birds being reared” since being still on migration they would not have even mated. Also this form of shooting contrary to your ideals got the full approval of the EU commission after an European Court ruling. so the “lawlessness” is only your own perception.
Just for the record. Birds shot in spring over Malta do not have “young birds being reared” since being still on migration they would not have even mated. Also this form of shooting contrary to your ideals got the full approval of the EU commission after an European Court ruling. so the “lawlessness” is only your own perception.
KIL ME NOW! Please!
I’m really ashamed to say I’m Maltese, what with John Dalli, Joseph’s push-back and now this.
Maybe when all the birds are gone, the hunters will start shooting each other.
What larks, eh.
What a very comforting thing to learn about the nice thoughts from certain morons. I can certainly confirm birds wil be here for far longer than cetian fools that inhabit this planet. So live up to your name and have a Ball before your time comes. Following whcih hunters will still be hunting birds and certain fools will still be preaching gloom and doom. This sort will also still be wishing bad things upon fellow humans that might not see eye to eye on whether birds, that are considered as edible game, are shot or simply differentiated from the poultry we have “cultivated” for our consumption.
They might as well get on with it. As for us, seeing birds fly freely in the open skies, is just a dream. These horrible people cannot look up and appreciate the beauty of nature. I wouldn’t mind them targeting eachother if that meant more birds in the sky.
There is no need for the birds to be gone in order that hunters start shooting each other, there were already such incidents, and all it takes is some aggressive competition over a shot bird.
I think quite a few illegalities in other areas are justified with the same reasoning.
Good morning Daphne.
I see you too wake up with birds on your mind some days.
As for a “sophisticated attachment ” to bird hunting, the writer of this article seems unaware of the fact that in the UK “22,149,024” birds are shot annually as opposed to Malta’s 397,690 and that 102 million are shot annually throughout the EU (facts given by CABS on http://www.komitee.de/en/projects/hunting-bags/bag-statistics-country
it is indeed ironic to only read about Malta’s dove hunting, which even the ECJ considers insignificant when compared to that in other EU states, when the author recognizes a shot total for doves “estimated across the whole European Union as between two and four million birds annually”.
Perhaps, with regards to our “notorious” dove hunting, considering people like Eddie, Lawrence, Simon openly made sure our right to shoot in spring was “guaranteed” you might wish to reply to such nonsensical and damaging articles.
After all why would 3 succesive prime ministers “stick out thier necks” for hunters where it not that their practices should be recognized as equal to other european hunters?
Though you detest our practices I am quite sure you agree that no one should pick on Malta, as the author does, when hunting is not just a Maltese phenomenon.
Articles like this damage the tourism potential of our islands, they are deviod of fact and only originate from people who like Birdlfe Malta are too myopic to see beyond thier own egoistic motives. i wonder where you stand?
Mark.
Three successive prime ministers stuck their neck out because hunters are myopic voters.
If hunters, according to you, are myopic, the least I can say is they have every right to insist that their privilige to shoot birds just like any other European hunter is respected by succesive prime ministers who clearly all dismiss the nonsense thrown against Maltese hunters.
Of course they can. And everyone else is free to say that hunters are myopic, transferring their vote to whoever allows them to pull the trigger, regardless of all other issues and concerns.
The UK has a population of 63 million. So if 22 million birds are shot annually, that means approximately one bird for every 3 people living in the UK.
Malta has a population of 415,000. So if over 397,000 birds are shot annually, that means almost one bird for every person living in Malta.
This comparison shows that in Malta 3 times as many birds (per capita) are shot in Malta when compared to the UK.
“… in the UK “22,149,024″ birds are shot annually as opposed to Malta’s 397,690 …”
So if we go by land areas, Malta’s ‘loot’ would have been 306,586,268 birds if it had the UK’s land area. WOW!
Galian – WOW! but fact is Malta does not have the same land area so stick to documented fact rather than your matehmatical assumptions.
Everyone in Malta should watch a new documentary by American author Jonathon Franzen called “Emptying the Skies”. It was released last month and is about the annual slaughter of birds in southern Europe, more specifically Malta, Italy and Cyprus. The argument that Malta is small and the amount of hunting there insignificant to global bird populations is blown out of the water.