BirdLife Malta today criticised the Maltese Ornis Committee hunting expert Mr. Henry Fenech Azzopradi for his recent proposal that 200 hunters should become “voluntary wardens” who would then act as a deterrent to illegal hunting activities (1).

BirdLife stated that all law abiding hunters, and not only 200 of them, already had a responsibility to report all illegal hunting activities to the police without the necessity of a so called “voluntary warden” system.

“Mr Fenech Azzopardi’s proposal is actually very similar to the FKNK’s self regulation system which involves certain hunters reporting illegal activities to the Federation instead of the police.” said BirdLife Malta President Joseph Mangion.

“According to Mr. Fenech Azzopardi’s proposal only the repeat offenders would be taken up within the legal system. This is not a tenable proposal, as nowhere in the world do hunters have such impunity from the law. There is no other sector in society that regulates itself in such a way.” continued Mr. Mangion.

In reaction to the FKNK’s self-regulation proposal the Attorney General, in a message circulated to Ornis Committee members in July 2007, had stated that the way the whole setup was proposed left a bit of too much discretion in the hands of the persons who proposed to be regulated by it (2).

BirdLife also drew attention to Mr Azzopardi’s acknowledgment that the police are not adequately equipped to enforce hunting laws in Malta. In spite of this, Mr Azzopardi’s proposal fell short of demanding for better law enforcement and hefty penalties for the offenders at the Courts.

“Let’s call a spade a spade. The hunting lobby is after a so called ‘limited’ spring hunting season despite the ECJ ruling that clearly found Malta guilty. It seems like they think that they can achieve this objective by grossly under reporting the actual number of birds they shoot and now by being in control of law enforcement rather than reporting the illegalities directly to the police as everyone else does.” said Mangion.

The conservation organisation also expressed its dismay with Mr Azzopardi’s claim that BirdLife was working against all hunting.

“As a member of the Ornis committee in Malta, Mr Azzopardi knows for a fact that BirdLife Malta is against illegal hunting and not against legal hunting in autumn. We therefore question Mr Azzopardi’s role at Ornis as an ‘independent’ advisor. If law abiding hunters are aware that criminals are damaging their reputation then they should start reporting illegal activities to the police and be prepared to stand as witnesses at the courts.” concluded Mr. Mangion.

Notes:

1) In an article published on the Times of Malta on 11th September 2009, Mr Fenech Azzopardi invited anyone interested in taking part in his proposed scheme to contact him so that “a team of voluntary warden hunters could be assembled in time for the spring hunt.” http://f1plus.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20091111/local/voluntary-warden-system-proposed

2) Message from Attorney General circulated to Maltese Ornis Committee by Chairman Luis Cilia on 29 July 2007.

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