Ever since a referendum date was set for the coming 11th of April, Spring Hunting has become one of the most debated topics on our islands, if not the most. Birdlife and FKNK (Federation for Hunting and Conservation) are constantly conflicting with each other.
Today, during degree plus hours, Andrew Muscat and Becky Micallef, KSU’s Social Policy Coordinator and Social Policy Commissioner respectively held a "Spring Hunting Assemblea’ at the University Quadrangle, which event was chaired by Kersten Mallia, who forms part of the sub-committee of the KSU’s Social Policy office. During the Assemblea, a total of eight speakers addressed the crowd as each of them set up their own arguments. The participants were: Jake Azzopardi, Julia Farrugia, Lucia Farrugia, Nicholas Galea, Alex Hili, Bernice Saliba, Steve Zammit Lupi and Brendan Zerafa.
Surprisingly enough, despite the fact that the arguments varied, all eight speakers were in one way or another in favour of the banning of spring hunting. The arguments varied from the sustainability of ecological systems to the apathy of politicians, as Alexander Hili raised the point that both the Prime Minister, Joseph Muscat and the Opposition Leader, Simon Busuttil claimed that they would be voting "Yes’ for hunting despite their declarations of devotion towards birds and nature in general. Another interesting point raised by Hili was that none of the Members of Parliaments which were interviewed had the courage to declare that they were voting against it, “not even those who are supposed to be responsible to protect the environment”.
Despite that there seemed to be no speaker against the banning of spring-hunting, personally I found the discussion quite intriguing as a range of points of view emerged, even those which I had no knowledge of.
