Who cares about birds? They are voiceless because they do not have a vote.
By Marica Micallef
Times of Malta has reported that “Spring hunting for turtle dove to go ahead as court lifts injunction.”
The court has turned down a request by the conservation group Birdlife to stop the spring hunting season for turtle dove since:
“Judge Giovanni Grixti revoked the injunction he had provisionally upheld, thus greenlighting the spring hunting season for quail and turtle dove.“
While Birdlife had filed an application signed by lawyers Claire Bonello and Martin Farrugia stating that the turtle dove is considered a vulnerable species by the EU, “Mr. Justice Grixti observed that the situation as to the decline in the population of the species remained unchanged” as “confirmed by the WBRU in its February 2023 update to the report.”
Who cares about the birds? The sentence of Judge Grixti confirms that our laws do not protect these species. They do not have a vote. Therefore, they cannot defend their rights to fly protected and speak up for their rights in court. In fact, reading comments of people stating, “Well done, hunters,” made me want to puke at the indifference people have and feel toward voiceless creations of God! This country is at a point of no return when it comes to a nation that lacks emotional and spiritual maturity!
I am not against hunters as people. I know some who are pleasant to talk to, hard-working fathers, and have golden hearts. But I am against all kinds of hunting – whether it is legal or illegal, for fun, trophy hunting, or for the amusement of royalty and demonstration of “strength,” whether it is a bird, a fox, a rabbit, an elephant for its tusks, minks or chinchillas for their fur, whales for the pharmaceutical companies and health supplements, sharks for their fins, tigers, leopards, lions for their skin, claws, teeth, and bones.
Linda Kalof, a professor of sociology at Michigan State University, told Live Science that hunting recalls ideologies deeply rooted in colonialism and patriarchy. Then they say it is tradition. Then I might start wearing the għonnella! Tradition, my foot! Sport my foot! Hunting for any reason is not a sport. In a sport, both sides should know they are in the game. In a sport, you do not endanger or kill others’ lives.
Nevertheless, in Malta, we have another aspect which this comment perfectly shows:
