Submitted by ANIMAL RIGHTS MALTA’S BLOG

One look at the hunter federation (FKNK) website, and one may judge for oneself whether to call “comic writing” this blog or else the official website of the FKNK.

In the FKNK news section, under the heading “Patriotic Maltese”, dated April 22, you will find the following:

“PRESS RELEASE:

The following hate mail is how some ‘patriotic’ Maltese citizens have been gullibly led to believe that their supposedly fellow Maltese, rural Maltese land owners, should be thrown-off their property. SHAME ON YOU.

The Federation for Hunting & Conservation - Malta (FKNK) yet again warns BirdLife (Malta) & Co. that no Turk, no-one hailing from Bermuda, none other coming from any country around the world, and no Maltese has any right to claim any sort of possession, nor interfere or molest with the liberty that Maltese rural land owners have the right to enjoy on their private Maltese properties.

Since last January, the FKNK has been warning the local competent authorities about the dangers of this provocative, malicious and confrontational man-hunt plan that BirdLife and their busybody foreigner friends organised in a premeditated fashion.

FKNK Council”.

Now, let us ignore the xenophobia that is glaring in this “press release”, something that we have gotten quite accustomed to. Let me just make a passing comment on the hilarious fact that most of the same hunters who believe that there should be no interference from some Birdlife members, just because they are “Turks” or from Bermuda, nonetheless worship a God who was born in the Middle East. Let’s ignore all this. But what is the FKNK saying here?

In essence, the FKNK is saying that this purported “unpatriotic” email, described as “hate mail”, instigates people to throw hunters off their property, to claim the hunters’ possessions, and “molest with the liberty” and the right of land owners to enjoy their private property.

Upon reading the above, I was expecting the email to be a sort of Bakuninite anarchist call for revolution, seizure and re-distribution of property, and the overthrow of government. However, it transpires that the email in question, reproduced on the FKNK’s press release complete with name and email address, is nothing of the sort.

The email, entitled “Vote against spring hunting”, says:

“Dear All

The Times Online has a poll regarding whether the Maltese Government should open the Spring hunting season. Please click on http://www.timesofmalta.com and vote to keep it closed if you would like to stop or reduce hunting in Malta. The Kaccaturi (hunters) are activating all their members to vote to open the season and they are winning.

Since yesterday, the gap has closed, so can you vote and possibly pass this email around to anyone you may know who is interested in getting our countryside back in spring and stopping this illegal slaughter of migratory birds.

It only takes a couple of minutes! Please vote!”.

The poll has since been closed, but there’s another one on the same topic at the time of writing.

So the email only calls for people to vote against spring hunting in an opinion poll. It is not about another Great Siege of Malta, under the direction of BirdLife Turkish Sultan Tolga Temuge. It’s not about throwing the hunters off their property. It’s not about taking away the right of hunters to enjoy their land. No, its not even about forcibly converting all Maltese hunters into Muslims. It only asks for the government not to open the spring hunting season, which would be in violation of EU regulations, until the European Court of Justice (ECJ) takes a final decision on the issue.

In the meantime, the ECJ has decided that there will be no spring hunting this year, and the Maltese government has already made it clear that it will comply with the ECJ decision. Of course, we still have to see whether this will be a temporary measure or a permanent decision, meaning the end of spring hunting in Malta. But in view of the fact that the Maltese government had not officially opened the spring hunting season this year, and add to this the later decision of the ECJ that there will definitely be no spring hunting permitted this year, what this means is that this year, spring hunting in Malta is definitely and unquestionably illegal.

Therefore, one wonders what all this fuss from the FKNK about this supposed “man-hunt” from BirdLife Malta is all about, when spring hunting is after all, illegal. Is the FKNK, who has until recently always maintained that it opposes all illegal hunting, now saying that hunters should be allowed to hunt illegally this spring? Would there be any “man-hunt” or “provocation” if hunters made use of their property without hunting illegally? Is the FKNK suggesting that criminals and law-breakers should be left alone to break the law, as long as they do it on their own property? Is the FKNK saying that “foreigners” should not be allowed to go to the Maltese countryside, just in case they might report criminals and law-breakers to the police? Is the FKNK defending criminals now?

And what makes the quoted email “hate mail”? Or unpatriotic, for that matter? Has voting in a Times poll suddenly become hateful or unpatriotic? No wonder most, if not all, newspapers ignored this “press release”. And to think that some people might wonder why the FKNK is losing its case in the European Court of Justice!

Dear hunters, with friends like the FKNK, who needs enemies?

Now that, is what I call comical!