PROACT MALTA

The slaughter of migratory birds has to stop - let the Malta Mission in your country know this - NOW!

It's time that the official representatives of MALTA abroad heard our views. Cut and paste the letter below, or even better compose your own in your own language, and send it to the nearest Malta Mission abroad - or indeed to all of them if you like ;-) Copy to proact (below) as usual please!

PROACT Coord has emailed to all addresses worldwide given below and in the links.

(In some browsers the mail addresses may only be readable when your mouse moves over them - sorry about that!)

**DON'T FORGET to add your name and address please!**

Some of the email addresses DON'T work. See which here...

Please don't mail me! I have complained to the Maltese Government. If you have the same experience, mail the Foreign Minister's Communications Co-ordinator, Ms Joanna Darmanin at (and it works):

Ms Joanna Darmanin

Egypt: Suez Nigeria: Lagos South Africa: Johannesburg Uganda: Kampala

MAIL FOR PROACT

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Open letter to official representatives of Malta abroad

To the Representatives of Malta abroad


Dear Madam,
Dear Sir,


The annual bird migration from their northern breeding areas to winter quarters is once again underway. Members of our organisation will be attending the annual raptor camp on Malta in September and their experiences and impressions of the island and its people will be recorded and published by Proact.

Over the past weeks and months we have received a flood of mails and letters protesting against the slaughter of migratory birds on Malta. A selection is shown below. They are printed unedited as they show vividly the strong and widespread personal disgust and frustration that the killing and trapping of birds on the islands generates. Many others have written direct to the Maltese authorities and newspapers. It would be unwise to underestimate the growing anger and disbelief that such practices are still tolerated in a civilised country. We leave you to draw your own conclusions as to the effects that this has, and will continue to have, on Maltas image abroad and, inevitably, the tourist economy.

Proact will continue to publicise such outrages until it becomes clear that a real effort is being made by the government and its executive organs to put an end to the killing, trapping and imprisoning of migrating birds. The seeming indifference to date over genuine expressions of concern from outside Malta does not augur well; but we hope that commonsense, or even political calculation, will eventually prevail.

Please do not send us acknowledgements that our letter has been sent to the appropriate authorities for their consideration. You can help your economy by saving the postage costs. It is about time that the all of the Maltese people, and those who govern them, realise that this matter concerns all of them and not just the civil servant or policeman who has to cope with the results of their inaction, ignorance or disinterest.


Yours sincerely,

* Name and Address *

Copies of this letter are being passed to the government ministries and departments, the press and conservation organisations and will be published on the internet. Please inform the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of the receipt of this communication.


Letters to Proact (an unedited - selection)



I hereby offer my support to your organisation in an effort to stop the appalling slaughter of large numbers of migratory birds as they pass through and over Malta.

Jerry Warne (UK)



I have heard of your activities to combat the bird slaughter on malta; and experienced it myself last year.

On my return I wrote to the Malta tourist Office in Frankfurt and the German EU Commissioner Guenther Verheugen.

Both assured me they would concern themselves with the matter.

Rainer Mönig, Germany



I support your protest campaign against the annual spectacle of the Maltese migrating bird hunt. Even ignoring the fact that this is a barbaric custom, it is extremely selfish, on a par with 'trophy hunters' of the past and has no place in the modern environment we have
today. It also provides no scientific information that is useful for the survival of the species - indeed, the very act itself is highly likely to be jeopardising those populations whose individuals pass over these islands.

Dr. K. J. Caley, Zoologist / Marine Biologist, UK



Do human beings have the right to kill birds without any valid reason? NO!!

Killing birds just for pleasure should be considered as a morbid andbarbarian activity and shouldn't be tolerated by any government. Especially not by a government like the Maltese, which would like to present their country as a modern community.

I fully support your organisation to stop the slaughter of migrating birds in Malta.

Bert-Jan Luijendijk, Netherlands




Please, put me into the Campaign. Best wishes and good luck with enough letters

Doz. Dr. sc. nat. Edwin Donath, Max-Planck-Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Potsdam, Germany




Please include me. I wrote years ago to the paper and the President re the slaughter....

Joan Thompson, UK



I'm supporting the protest against the barbaric bird slaughter on Malta! I hope the birds fight back like in the Hitchkock movie!

Regards
Ulf Hedlund, Sweden



I'm horrified over the fact that you don't put an end to this awful behaviour! It's time that we start to treat the animals with the same respect that we want for ourselves. They deserve nothing less!

Jeanette Holmgren, Sweden.



I fully agree with the content in your letters targeted at leading decision makers and opinion-formers on Malta. I want my name under all of them.

Göran Mellbring, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Surgery
Sweden


My wife and I visited Malta in November 1999, and were disgusted by the trapping clap nets we saw, the finches in cages as decoys and the shooting cabins all around the coast, and of course the shots.
In our opinion, Malta should not be allowed to join the EU, until it put its bird laws, in line with the rest of the EU.
And of course we will not be tourists again in Malta, we love open spaces and birds.

Peter & Fran Wolstenholme, Ireland




Vi vill inte att våra fåglar skjuts, skadas eller dödas då det gäller liv och ev tidigare inkanationer av levande varelser.
Fåglarna kan inte vara så stort problem för mänskligheten så att detta skall kunna tillåtas.
Skjut istället den eller de som kommit på denna idiotiska iden.

Häls E Kvarnström, Stockholm Sweden



We must put a STOP to the barbaric bird slaughter on Malta that is currently
going on!

Thomas Magnusson, Sweden

STOP THE BIRD-SLAUGTERING ON MALTA!!!
I WILL NEVER VISIT MALTA AS A TOURIST BECAUSE OF WHAT IS GOING ON.

Eric Magnusson, Sweden




I am a resident of the state of Nebraska in the United States. I love to watch birds and may someday get to Malta if there are any birds left there.
Please stop the senseless slaughter or capture of migrating birds. If this continues, many species will disappear as did the passenger pigeon in the eastern United States.

Carolyn Hall, USA



One thing I like to see when I travel is the wildlife and especially the birds. I would never think of traveling to Malta with this history of bird killings. Animal abuse is considered to be done by mentally ill people. Are all the Maltese people mentally ill? Who could commit such murders and who could stand by while others kill these birds and do nothing? This is not the kind of place I want to go to for a vacation. It is not what anyone in the US would want to see on their vacations either.
Humans will never be happy until they torture and murder everything on earth including other humans.

Sandra M. Cannon, USA


Please see that a stop is put to the slaying of these beautiful birds.

Sincerely,

Peggy Wareham, USA


Stop this senseless killing. Too bad humans act like this. If there anything like some I have known they kill for the fun of it, and don't even eat the bird. Sick!!

Brenda Marie, USA



The barbaric bird slaughter on Malta MUST STOP!

Debora, Rovello Porro (CO), Italy



Please add my name to the various letters to be sent to representatives of the Maltese Government in protest at the continuing hunting of birds. Well done for keeping the issue in the public domain and keep up the good work.

Yours sincerely,

Eugene Archer, Dublin, Ireland

PS: You can also add that hell will freeze over before I'll set foot in Malta and I shall be encouraging everyone I know, whether they're interested in birds or not, to boycott the country and its tourist industry !


Can you add me on the list of protesting birders against killing of migrating birds at Malta? I have read it at your page and I strongly support the protest against this kind of cynic slaughter.

Samuel Pacenovsky, Slovakia


My name is Alexsandra Kyrzakos and I am from Canada. Please add my name and my husbands name, Paul Elieff, to all of your petitions to stop the bird slaughter in Malta.
God Bless!

Alexsandra Kyrzakos, Canada


I am writing to protest the bird slaughter in Malta. All species in our precious ecosystem should be left as they are.

Wendy Lochner
Sayville, NY, USA


For Favour of publication.

I understand from various sources that migratory birds are still being killed by the Maltese people. Migratory birds are a beauty and a benefit for all people, everywhere. I strongly object to the unpleasant Maltese habit of killing the small songsters whose presence I would otherwise enjoy. I urge the government of Malta finally to make the killing of wild birds illegal, to bring to justice any criminal found to be killing birds, and to make public the findings of court proceedings.

Eileen Cameron, UK




I wish to protest the slaughter of birds in Malta.

My sisters and I were planning an extended trip to the Med this Fall. We will skip Malta and visit only countries that do not condone barbaric practices.

Bobbie Fisher, USA



Having been to Malta [just the once was enough] you have my wholehearted support. Sadly time constraints prevent me offering much in the way of active support .

John Wilson, Wales


Of course I agree. I was already helping these guys in the mid sixties!

Norman van Swelm, Netherlands



I will willing support the Malta campaign with my signature. It completely disgusts me whats going on in the Mediterranean.

Carl Baggott, UK


Such actions of cruelty against birds and other animals in overseas countries are forcing me to vote with my feet and I will no longer visit such countries until they review their policies.
I wish you every success with the campaign and genuinely hope that the governments of these countries realise that people find this type of action not only sickening but unnecessary.

Janet Ward, UK



I have heard the Malta story in great details from a bunch of Maltese birders who came and stayed on my farm in Zimbabwe quite a few years back. It is a totally sickening situation and you may certainly add my name to any proposals that you wish to send to the Maltese government. The Brits have been trying for donkey's years to force some opposition but the hunting lobby is so strong that the government bows to it although occasionally pays lip service to the EU. I do not really know just how to pressurise these people apart from putting a trade embargo on all guns and ammunition but then the illegal gun-runners would get to work at night.

Tony Tree, South Africa



Ich möchte gerne an der Protestaktion gegen die Massentötung von Vögeln auf Malta teilnehmen

Katharina Springer, Germany


I do support your actions to create an opinion against the bird slaughter in Malta!

Mikael Dahlberg, Lund, Sweden


The slaughter of migratory must stop now.
To slaughter migratory birds is insane. Anyone doing this is insane. This is not a fun thing. This must stop.

Sincerely,

Betty Jean Herner, USA




Please add my name to the petition (or similar sentiments):

Eddy Blyth, Karen Casey, Brian Sharkey, Chris Lamsdell, Sean Huggins, Roger Hughes, Judith Smith, Rob Innes, Alina Congreve, Dave and Jane Pearson, Nick Pomiankowski, John Farrar, Chris Anson, Chris Mead, Andy and Jackie McKee, Gruff Dodd, Andy Mabbett, Ceri Jones, Janet Jones, Sian Jones, Steve Hay, Martyn Hall, Paul Chandler, Paula Shepherd, Verity Townshend , Maisie Townshend, UK

Drs. Q.L. Slings, Jo Seegers, Drs. Guus van Duin (biologist/journalist), Kees Bakker, Sake de Vlas, Kitty Bakker-Nuberg, Pim Wolf, The Netherlands

Arnau Bonan Barfull, Spain

Claire Spottiswoode, South Africa

Alexandre Goueffon, France

Juha Koskinen, Olli Tenovuo, Finland

Ola Nilsson, Stefan Oscarsson, Lars Svensson, Anna Palm, Christer Sjoang, Sigvard Lundgren, Ingemar Amberndtsson, Frida Annerbäck, Sweden

Yvon Princen, Erik van Bogaert, Wim Veraghtert, Belgium

Dr Maria Paspaleva and Dr.Matei Talpeanu ornitholgists, Bucuresti, Romania

Gail Wehunt, Janice Boyd PhD , Kitty Araiyama, Len Torvinen, Ann Torvinen, Margery Olsen, Karli Fitzmaurice, Katie Fitzmaurice, Gloria Van Dellen, Wilma Wells, Betty Jean Herner, Denise Fainberg, Jody Keelin, Lori and Richard Rothstein, Gail Cross, Corey Paul Mondello, USA

Jeff Price, Ibis Excursions, Bird, Nature & Photography Tours, Denmark

Fiona Courtis, Philip Griffin, Australia

John Spiteri-Gingell, Ursula Franke, Oliver Nüssen, Germany

Alf Tore Mjøs, Biret Máret Kallio, Norway

Cyril Schönbächler, Switzerland

Dermot McCabe, Ireland

Diego Rubolini, Marta Rubolini, Silvana Erbice , Agostino Rubolini, Violetta Longoni, Renato Longoni, Fiorella Busin, Leonella Lonardoni, Silvino Erbice, Giovanni Erbice, Benedetta Erbice, Pedroni Maria Alberta, Paola Furini, Giovanni Venegoni, Antonio Montanari, Silvio Vincenzi, Claudia Valoriani and Fabio Mirandola, Andrea Tarozzi, Chiara Scandolara, Bruno Caula, Italy

...and (very) many others!

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