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From The Malta Independent November 11, 2001
Hunters' warnings - a suggestion
Your correspondent Michael Alexander (TMIS, 4 November) gives me the impression that he is gloating because "hunters
in Germany have to be licenced at a considerable cost and consequently only the very well-to-do can afford such a licence",
possibly hinting that we, in Malta, should follow suit. What I would suggest by way of controlling game shooting is for government
to ration out cartridges to licenced shooters and put up their price at the same time.
For instance, an average game
shooter uses up to 200 cartridges each year and these cost him a total of Lm12. By rationing 50 cartridges for every licenced
shooter and charging the individual Lm12 instead of the Lm3 they would cost him today, the shooter would still spend the same
amount of money - Lm12 - but would get only one quarter of the number of cartridges at the old price. The extra money - Lm9
- to be given to the retailer to make good his loss of sales.
Clay pigeon cartridges are different from game shooting
cartridges and are marked as such. These cartridges could be sold in shooting club premises in unlimited quantities without
an increase in price. Any game shooter caught using them in his sport would be heavily fined.
How about this democratic
and fair measure to control wild and irresponsible shooting?
C. Borg
SLIEMA
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