Hunters’ federation CEO engaged as government consultant on hunting and trapping

Lino Farrugia has been paid €1,000 a month since January 2014 to advise the government’s Environment ministry on matters relating to hunting and trapping.

While the rest of the Maltese population stress about the senseless (and illegal) killing of birds in spring, and the senseless (and illegal) trapping of finches in autumn, the FKNK CEO rakes in €12,000 to advise the government on how to improve his hobby (Photo credit: maltatoday)

This information was made public following a  parliamentary question by Opposition MP Kristy Debono on the issue of consultants to the government.  This piece of information is really critical in putting all the previous government decisions on hunting and trapping into context.

We should be thanking Lino Farrugia for landing Malta into the European Court of Justice then, since the autumn trapping season for protected finches opened again after he was engaged as a consultant. While he gets his €1,000 a month, the rest of us will have to foot the bill for the reintroduction of this already phased out meaningless ‘delizzju’.

Meanwhile, over in the private sector, compliance officers around the world that have to spend their time faffing about with conflict of interest checks.But I am sure that Lino Farrugia will argue in his capacity as a consultant that there is no conflict of interest here.

Might as well engage a vegetarian as a consultant on animal husbandry at this point (no offence dear Veggies!)

Flagrant is the new buzzword this spring hunting season

As expected the spring hunting season will not be closed as promised by the Prime Minister. Instead, he created a new definition of what he believes to be the acceptable level of illegalities that would merit him closing the hunting season – it has to be flagrant.

Stefan Micallef, 43, of Naxxar, the hunter who illegally shot a protected Common Cuckoo. Photo credit: TimesofMalta

Flagrant is the new buzzword. You better memorise it and start putting it in your vocabulary, as we will be hearing a lot of the Yes voters using it in their arguments after more illegal hunting incidents will be reported in the coming days. That is how these people operate after all, they follow the yardstick provided to them as they cannot think critically for themselves.

So what is flagrant abuse?

According to previous governments, and the current one, it has to be systematic killing of numerous protected birds. The PN government closed the 2007 spring hunt after a flock of honey buzzards was massacred, and the current PL government closed the 2014 autumn hunt after a daily spate of illegalities.

Any rational person in Malta (in this case, the individuals who voted NO), knows clearly enough that the killing of protected birds cannot be quantified in numbers. One, two, twelve, fifty or a hundred makes no difference when they are protected, as it is ILLEGAL. The fact that governments in Malta have the audacity to decide what number is acceptable is unbelievable.

I am very sorry for those law abiding hunters, but enough is  enough. This has not happened once, and this rampant poaching will keep on occurring until spring hunting is banned once and for all. The 49.6% of the population, or as I call them the real ‘minority’, are watching you like hawks. You may want to shoot us down, stuff us and add us to your collection, but we will not let this go.

The government may accept the killing of even one protected bird because it is not ‘flagrant’ enough, but we will not. Furthermore, in light of this referendum, a collective punishment is more than justified. You are all certainly capable of follow the law, you just choose to flagrantly not too.

Yes, you can continue hunting illegally. For now at least.

The spring hunting referendum yielded a disappointing Yes win. The Maltese government can keep on allowing illegal spring hunting to continue while the rest of us pay the imposed EU fines so that a select few of people can enjoy their hobby.

The seemingly traditional and undisputed art/sport of bullfighting has been banned in Catalonia, despite opposition from tradition advocates (Photo credit: theguardian)

Democracy is a double edged sword – it provides a euphoric sense when you win, but a gut-wrenching one when you sit one the losing side. Like most people today, I feel as though democracy has let me down. This feeling is not being aided by those Yes voters who (even though have been too embarrassed to admit their stance) are posting about democracy this, and democracy that. While it is true that the referendum is a democratic process, this is the sixth or seventh one that we had in Malta and every outcome has always been respected.

I for one have been heralding the democratic nature of this referendum. Will I respect the outcome? Of course I will. Do I respect spring hunting? Most certainly not. If anything, this referendum only highlights what I have been saying for so long – that the environment in Malta is irrelevant and insignificant, because our ‘hobbies’ and lifestyle are far more important to us.

At least now we know who the real minority in this country is. Till then, you can all enjoy paying fines out of your taxes for the continuation of illegal spring hunting.

Well, at least for now dear hunters. They did eventually ban bullfighting in Barcelona and the rest of Catalonia (and THAT is an actual traditional and cultural blood sport). Attendance for bullfights in Spain is increasingly becoming a senior citizen’s club. Young people are simply not interested in this bloodsport.

The same situation occurs in Malta, where you have the vast majority of young people opposing spring hunting. But when the young and forward thinking generation is outnumbered by the older and more traditional one, such practices will be extremely difficult to eliminate. And before a handful of young yes voters come out to oppose this statement, you will most definitely be a minority when you reach your golden age. This is what consistently happens in aging European democracies – the older generation screws over the younger one. It recently happened with the Scottish Referendum, and it happened today with the spring hunting referendum in Malta.

So enjoy your illegal spring hunt dear hunters, as your so-called tradition is on the decline and will become obsolete in the next couple of decades. The least you can do now is have the decency to report your fellow poachers. 49% of the population is watching you, and they are not about to let you off that easy.

For now, I will enjoy the last day of Spring before citizens get unceremoniously shoved out of the way and drenched in lead pellets.

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N.B. – A special thank you goes out to all those fishermen, firework enthusiasts, bizzilla workers, festa lovers, stamp collectors, for depriving 49% of the population with the opportunity to enjoy spring, when your hobbies are safeguarded under Maltese Law. Thank you for being selfish and short-sighted.

Started from the bottom now we’re here

In less than 24 hours, the Maltese public will vote in a historic abrogative referendum to decide whether they would like to allow spring hunting to continue. While this referendum is posing a very clear yes/no voting scenario for the electorate, it is abundantly clear that tomorrow’s choice is far greater than the issue of spring hunting itself.

This is the reality of the hunting lobby. Political blackmail, bullying, and downright selfishness. The above photo was taken when the FKNK presented their so-called petition in 2014, and the image below was taken during a 1993 protest. In fact, hunting laws were relaxed prior to the 1996 general election.

Both the yes and no camp have presented their cases to the public. On one side we have cries of animal conservation, animal rights and equal countryside rights for everyone. On the other side, we have concepts of ‘minority’ rights, cultural heritage and equality as European citizens. I have had the opportunity to listen and absorb both sides of the argument, and while I am making no secret of the fact that I will be voting NO, I do believe that this referendum transcends the simple Yes/No vote.

I give you the concept of ‘Citizen Science’, popularised by Alan Irwin in his 1995 book of the same name, and the subject of a painstaking book review I completed in 2011. In a nut shell, this book provides a compelling overview of how and why citizens in general fail to engage in wider scientific debates, which generally results in them being absent or excluded from decision-making processes that have a direct or indirect impact on them.

This is exactly what has happened in Malta for decades over the issue of spring hunting. The non-hunting public has been excluded for too long from this debate. The only ‘players’ in this issue have always been the two political parties and the FKNK, with BirdLife Malta and environmentalists flailing frantically in between trying to achieve some form of resolve.

As social scientists and policy workers, we learn about the ‘bottom-up’ approach to governance (even in environmental governance), where people at the bottom of the food chain come together en masse to contribute to the governance process. The reality is that this concept appears to be somewhat mythological in most democracies, especially in archaic democracy structures such as the one we have in Malta.

But the tide has turned, and this concept has FINALLY arrived in Malta. Citizens are calling the shots now; me, you, your friends and families, and their friends and families, and so on. Politicians have been strong armed into taking a backseat and allowing ordinary non-political people to spar.

This is why this referendum is so important, as it is a reflection of purest form of democracy we could ever hope to witness in this country. In reality, neither the environmentalists nor the hunters are the bad guys in this scenario. They are both fighting tooth and nail for what they believe in. The real bad guys in this scenario are our politicians, who have consistently deceived us and dragged their feet on the hunting issue since our accession to the EU. They lied about the derogation, they lied about the legality of the past hunting seasons, they consistently keep on allowing this atrocious practice to happen in spring – and all this being done in fear of retribution by hunters and the subsequent loss of their votes.

Tomorrow, we have the opportunity to stand and be counted, so that Malta can be ‘Taghna Lkoll’ and we all can have a ‘Futur fis-Sod’, irrespective of our political beliefs.

Tomorrow, you can eliminate the political blackmail that the hunting lobby has using keeping on our political parties. No more threats to vote for someone else if they do not get what they want, no more voting boycotts, no more bullying, just no no NO NO NO!!

Vote NO, and stand to be counted!

I’m voting NO, but pass the chicken wrap

One of the main reasons why I am thoroughly enjoying this hunting referendum campaign is the hysterical and irrational propaganda the pro-hunting lobby is using. After comparing the hunting group to LGBT groups, and semi-brainwashing other hobbyists for their support, all eyes are now upon vegetarians and vegans!

Even those farmed animals are ashamed at their association with the Pro-hunting lobby…

The story started with a targeted attack on SHOut Spokesperson Moira Delia, who also hosts a cooking show called Gourmet Today. Hunters found it a bit hypocritical that someone advocating for the anti-spring hunting campaign would dare to cook quail on live television. This would seem logical to a narrow-minded person who assumes that quail is only sourced from the environment, lead pellets and all. Moira rebuffed these arguments, by stating that she does and has never hunted and that she does not cook or eat quail.

However, that is entirely besides the point here. It takes a certain kind of stupidity to associate the hunting issue with an individual’s eating habits. If Maltese hunters only hunted birds in spring for food, then they would not need to target protected species to keep them as trophies, or even worse just for the joy of hitting a moving object. If all the hunters actually followed the rules, the Maltese public wouldn’t be so irate at them would they?

Would I eat quail if presented with the occasion? Of course I would, but only if it is obtained from sustainable farmed sources. The issue of eating meat from animals reared for slaughter (rabbits, chickens, cows, sheep, pig and so on) falls under the umbrella of animal rights and NOT animal conservation. There is a specific set of laws which govern animal husbandry, about how to treat these animal appropriately and humanely despite their ultimate fate.

It is with this same logic that I eat Bluefin Tuna, swordfish and other commercially available fish – when obtained from sustainable sources. Birds and game hunted for their meat in Malta during autumn (including rabbits during summer) would also follow the same principle. This is where animal conservation comes in (NOT animal rights – wild animals have no such rights), to strike a balance between what is needed by a community and by what should be left behind to allow the population to regenerate.

Therefore, if you are one of those people that honestly thinks that those who are voting No should be ashamed of themselves because they eat meat, then you should be recognised as an idiot.

DISCLAIMER – No Vegetarians or Vegans were hurt in the formulation of this post

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More hilarious propaganda can be found at the Progressivi Qawra‘s Facebook Page. Their graphic designer deserves the Gieh ir-Repubblika, especially for recruiting Paris Hilton as a spokesperson:

Why are the Environment Minister and Shadow Environment Minister not voting against Spring Hunting?

Both the Government and the Opposition will be voting in favour of keeping Spring Hunting to appease to shotgun slinging thugs that call themselves hobbyists and enthusiasts. Despite both sides of the house wanting to ‘not politicise’ this citizen driven referendum, the press has not yet pressured the two main politicians concerned with the environment to provide a rational argument as to how they will be voting.

Leo Brincat (Environment Minister) and Marthese Portelli (Shadow Environment Minister), are the only two politicians who should be campaigning to end spring hunting, no questions asked. However, they want to remain neutral on this environmental issue and let the people decide – how convenient!

This referendum on the removal of the derogation to stop spring hunting in Malta is a political and social anomaly. In what seems to be a dystopian futuristic reality, politicians do not want to get involved and the main media houses have pitted themselves against spring hunting, leaving the public to debate on social media.

Maltatoday has released a brilliant Vox Pop concerning Maltese MPs and how they would be voting in the referendum. The majority will be voting in favour of keeping the derogation since they ‘promised’ hunters such and they want to piss off all the nature loving, non-hunting citizens – they obviously know that we will still vote for them again. Most of the MPs are being coy and do not want to divulge any information, and some are just plain stupid.

Some of the highlights from this vox pop include:

• Charlo Bonnici (PN – Spokesman for Hunting) Must-not-answer-question-keep-on-talking-ramble-ramble-ramble. Also, what does the opposition want to infer by ‘spokesman for hunting’, when hunting falls under Marthese Bonnici’s remit?
• Roderick Galdes (PL – Parliamentary Secratary for Animal Rights) will be voting in favour since he still hasn’t actually understood what his role in Parliament is
• Konrad Mizzi (PL – Health and Energy Minister) is basing his yes vote on scientific evidence he found on Pinterest
• Joe Cassar (PN) – doesn’t like to be asked questions in front of Parliament since this is not a political issue. All media outlets are kindly asked to send questions to his office via pigeon or crow
• Silvio Schembri (PL) – admits that he actually wants to help the yes vote win – but did someone say that politicians will not interfere? This is what happens when children are allowed to work in Parliament
• Joe Debono Grech (PL) Micheal Farrugia (PL), Luciano Busuttil (PL) need to be reminded what the correct definition of a minority group is, as they continue to classify hunters as a minority (for the last time, they are not). Oh and Luciano Busuttil just compared this referendum to the divorce referendum…
• Chris Cardona (PL – Economy Minister) is voting Yes because he believes that there should be more choice, more choice of protected birds for hunters to kill throughout the year
• Jason Azzopardi (PN – Shadow Justice and Democracy Minister) Is trying so hard to keep up his consistency, that he fell asleep on the microphone mid-answer. Someone throw the man a red bull and a snickers bar
• Then, there is Stefan Buontempo (PL), who has just confirmed that he is a brainless zombie that will vote the same way the Prime Minister will. He is also deathly afraid of reporters (If I keep smiling, will she go away?)

Stefan Buontempo version 2.4.3x – Limited edition MP design. Batteries not included. Keep away from Birds. May contain Lead.

Unfortunately, the media has not yet hounded the Environment Minister Leo Brincat and Shadow Environment Minister Marthese Portelli to provide a definitive stance. They both said that they want to let people decide, since both sides of the camp are happy with politicians not interfering.

Erm, No. You are not wiggling yourself out of this one with such ease. Out of all the politicians on this Island, these two are the ones that should be leading the ‘No’ vote. As an Environment Minister (and Shadow Environment Minister), your role is to protect the environment for the interest of the people, and this implies challenging your own party’s views on occasion. This referendum is purely environmental at heart, concerning the conservation and protection of species for the future generations of this country. I would strongly suggest for the media to pursue them both – at least we can finally confirm whether Dr Brincat is fit for purpose. Keep in mind that the Environment Minister has left Roderick Galdes at the helm of this hunting debate, and he clearly is a hunting sympathiser.

Incidentally, wouldn’t it also be interesting if local newspapers ask how Karmenu Vella, The EU Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and fisheries, will vote?

FKNK has already started the political blackmail for the 2018 general election

It has a been long supported theory that the Maltese hunting community uses its strength in numbers to influence political parties into giving them what they want. With every new hunting related press release in Malta, this theory becomes even more verified. In fact, I can confidently state that the Federation for Hunting and Conservation (FKNK) is slowly digressing from their main aim of supposed conservation to a bunch of politically blackmailing twats.

Hunters using their vote as a bargaining chip in 1993 during a protest. The banner reads ‘15,000 hunters + wives + extended kin = votes’. This led to hunting laws being relaxed prior to the 1996 general election. Here is the FKNK in 2014 at it again, implying that minors will be eligible voters in the 2018 general election. (Source: Falzon, M.A. (2008). Flights of Passion: Hunting, ecology and politics in Malta and the Mediterranean. Anthropology Today, 24 (1), pp. 15-20.)

Yes, I used the word ‘twats’ specifically because it takes a certain level of ‘fool’ to use political blackmail to get what you want. The FKNK issued a new press release that reads the following:

“Minors’ signatures are being used to bolster a petition to block the spring hunting referendum, Times of Malta has learnt.

Hunters’ federation president Joe Perici Calascione confirmed that signatories included a number of minors but denied media reports that hunters had already collected 90,000 signatures.

“All those who signed are Maltese citizens and ID card holders. They are not all of voting age,” he said, adding that these would all be 18 by the next general election in 2018“

The last sentence is basically a warning to the current Government and to the Opposition which goes something like this: “by the next general election we will have increased the number of eligible voters in the hunting community, so you had better give us what we want and not interfere with the spring hunting derogation or else we will not vote for you again”.

The FKNK is an organisation representing a group of selfish individuals that like to think themselves living in an undemocratic and/or communist country, where political blackmail gives you a certain degree of leverage. Whilst not all hunters are ‘created twats’ and are simply victims of circumstance, there can never be an opportunity to reason with the FKNK when it stomps its feet at any sign of disagreement and uses votes as a bargaining tool. No wonder every Maltese government has systematically failed to find a solution or even compromise on the issue of hunting.

Luckily for the general public (and unluckily for the foolish and undemocratic hunters), Malta is a democratic country and people can legally call for a referendum on the issue of spring hunting. The big question is this: should the referendum pass, would the government adopt the result or will it cower at the thought of losing thousands of votes from the hunting communit

Hunters are NOT a minority, they’re a group of enthusiasts

Maltese hunters will resort to any form of deception to justify their unsavoury practices and try to derail a perfectly legal referendum. In a first for Malta, a referendum has been called for by the public to abolish spring hunting. Despite the EU derogation that give hunters the opportunity and privilege to hunt during spring, the general public can and has the right to call for a cessation of this practice. Trying to brainwash the public by labelling yourself as a minority in a desperate attempt to stop the referendum is just plain moronic.

In one my previous posts, I described how hunters are not a minority but simply a group of enthusiasts. If the FKNK wants to label hunters are poor struggling  minorities, then every single other group practicing a hobby (delizzju) in Malta should be called a minority as well.

Let us give a brief (and absolutely hilarious) overview of what would be classified as a minority according to the hunting community’s silly public claims:

• The Malta philatelic society
• The Malta Drag Racing Association
• All Wheel Drive Club Association (Off-roading enthusiasts)
• Malta Kitesurfing community
• The Malta Lace Club (people who have a fondness for Maltese lace, Bizzilla)
• Friends of the Crib Society Malta (People who have the hobby of setting up the Christmas crib on a yearly basis)

Like hunting, lace making is a hobby in Malta – according to some genius at the FKNK, these would also qualify as a minority group (Photo credit: MaltaBulb)

The Malta hunting community easily goes into this pile of associations, as hunting is a hobby and not something that you are born with or into, such as your sexual orientation, skin colour, linguistic and/or religious upbringing. Hunters in Malta are given the privilege to hunt in Spring, and all they do is squander their golden opportunity. The end result is a public who, like me, is tired of their illegalities and have decided to pursue the legal road and call for a referendum.

Furthermore, having all the MEP candidates (excluding Jonathan Shaw) tiptoeing around situation and claiming that the rights of hunters should be respected in line with our EU package agreement is just ridiculous. The EU cannot rescind the derogation since it is part of Malta’s accession package, despite the fact that every other EU member state is against it. Politicians in Malta really need to start listening to their constituents, since this referendum is clearly being called by the people who wants to see spring hunting abolished.

Rights should never be tampered with, but privileges should definitely be removed when they over stay their welcome. One should never bite the hand that feeds you, but the hunting community chose to rip of its arm and toss it aside. It was a matter of time that the general public decided to pick up that arm and slap the hunting community squarely on its face with it.

Hunting Organisations? #DramaQueens

The closer Malta etches towards a referendum on the abolishment of spring hunting, the more sensational and downright ludicrous the hunting community is acting in the public eye. The most recent event by far ranks in my Top 5  of “Are you Serious?” comments released to the press, in which two hunting organisations complained to the Education minister regarding a “biased” question in a Secondary School annual exam.

They say desperate times call for desperate measures – to which I include clutching at straws and becoming overly defensive. In an era were the general public is highly vexed with the hunting community’s shenanigans, and the same community seems to be losing its bargaining power vis-a-vis its number of votes, it has now resorted to defending itself from any thing which it perceives to be a threat.

The exam question, which translates to “Use the spaces below to list five Maltese plants that are becoming degraded as a result of unsustainable hunting and trapping (Photo credit: TimesofMalta)

In an open letter to the Education Minister (Are you Serious?), they called for the education system to cease the “brainwashing” of young minds against trapping and hunting. Even as I type this post I cannot help but smile at such a frivolous attempt at appearing like martyrs after years of arrogant conduct.

If St Hubert’s Hunters and the FKNK had actually properly read the question correctly (despite the FKNK’s assurance at reading and interpreting exam questions in their own open letter to the Minister), they could have grasped that the question is referring to unsustainable hunting and trapping practices, which if not regulated leave a damaging effect to the ecosystem.

No question was directly stating “List five damaging effects of hunting and trapping” – the word ‘unsustainable’ is not just a buzzword that people throw around to embellish sentences. It speaks volumes into the theory of sustainable development that accounts for social, ecological, political, financial and legal aspects of any issue. This exam question was clearly dealing with the ecological perspective of sustainable practices such as hunting and trapping.

Furthermore, St. Hubert’s Hunters actually repeated what the exam question was in fact trying to convey in their open letter (Are you Serious?):

“Subsequently we solicit Government to ensure that our children are educated in a manner that makes a clear distinction between the legal practice of sustainable hunting and trapping and the despicableillegal acts against protected birds”.

In conclusion, I would like to tie this with another recent story that is extremely pertinent to education in our schools. On the same day the FKNK released their statement, they also declared that an individual arrested inside a bird sanctuary for illegal hunting “was not a hunter but a misguided 16-year-old who was not yet old enough to hold a hunting licence”. So is it the schools and our educational system that are brainwashing our children against hunting?

All together now: ARE YOU SERIOUS???