Malta votes on controversial spring bird hunt

(VALLETTA) - Maltese voters flocked to polling booths Saturday for a referendum which could end the controversial tradition of spring hunting in which birds migrating across the Mediterranean are killed before they can breed.

The issue has stirred passions for years on the island nation, with supporters defending what they say is a years-long custom and opponents attacking what they see as a cruel practice that often flouts the law.

Voter Alex Mifsud, a 33-year old lawyer, slammed the shoot as "a horrible hobby," telling AFP outside a poll station that "we are talking about hunters who go out and kill anything they see flying. We are voting to make it illegal."

But Josephine Cassar, 56, whose husband comes from a family of hunters and took up the sport as a child, said that she would definitely be voting to protect the practice and warned banning it could be the start of a slippery slope.

"I have a feeling that this is just the first step. In the near future, there will be more calls to eradicate other hobbies, including fishing," she added as she prepared to cast her ballot in the small island state.

Voting closes at 10:00 pm local time (2200 GMT) and the result of the referendum is not expected until Sunday.

The European Court of Justice found Malta guilty in 2009 of permitting the hunting of birds during their return from Africa to breeding grounds in Europe, before they have had a chance to reproduce.

But while spring hunting is outlawed by the EU Birds Directive, Malta applies yearly for a short period of exemption.

Almost 340,000 people are eligible to vote in the referendum, which is being held in response to a voters' petition.

For the referendum to be valid, more than 50 percent of those eligible to vote must take part. Voter turnout in Malta is traditionally very high at over 70 percent.

Critics of the spring tradition say the hunting community -- with some 14,000 registered shooters -- ignores limits on the numbers of quails and turtle doves that can be killed.

Some hunters are also accused of illegally shooting other birds including swifts, storks, yellow-legged gulls, kestrels and harriers, and campaigners say the emphasis must be on protecting all feathered creatures from the hunter's gun.

The debate has been raging for years. In September 2014, the government suspended the hunting season after it was discovered that protected storks had been gunned down.

The stop saw hunters take to the streets for a protest which turned violent and saw several hunters arrested.