Hunters hit at judge’s call to ban blood sports

A hunter’s organisation, St Hubert Hunters, believes that Mr Justice Michael Mallia’s argument that all forms of blood sport, including hunting, should be banned is “ludicrous”, given that the judge is a former hunter himself. The call was made on Wednesday in a judgment on animal cruelty in which a nine-month jail term given to watchman Joseph Galea for dumping a dog in a skip was confirmed on appeal. In his judgment, Mr Justice Mallia said that, while he did not want to be misunderstood that animals should never be killed, it had to be within reason for the survival and health of humans and done in a controlled manner. Thankfully, he added, in Malta people had an adequate supply of food and, therefore, there was no need to kill wildlife for sustenance. Those who did kill wildlife did so for their own emotional satisfaction or the thrill they had at the moment the animal was killed, he said, adding that this sort of emotional satisfaction belonged to the troglodyte era. “Perhaps, one day, we’ll realise what we’re doing and pluck up the courage to once and for all stop all forms of blood sport,” the judge said. The president of St Hubert Hunters, Mark Mifsud Bonnici, said that the...