Customer Reviews

Fatal Flight: The Maltese Obsession With Killing Birds

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The book is extremely well written with very good narrative and very good command of English. Anyone who is interested in hunting and conservation should read this book. Many hunters, including one reviewer, did not like the book because it has exposed their practices. I have visited Malta many times and witnessed the uncontrolled shooting of birds which is described so well in this book.
The author is evidently an authority in the subject and knows well what he is writing about. The book is well illustrated and all arguments in it are backed with evidence. No wonder the book has a series of reccomendations by Farley Mowat, Greenpeace, the RSPB as well as the British Game Conservancy, a hunters' orgainisation.
A great book by someone who had the guts to expose what goes on in the name of hunting. If there were more people like the author, the world would be a better place to live in.

if the content was not so disturbing, i would have enjoyed the presentation

I would only add, that if it were only hunting of birds by the Maltese, I would not be opposed. How many people in Malta-at least La Valetta- did I see who kept large quantities of birds emprisoned in cages. No, the maltese are not the only ones to do this...but per capita they do it more than any other population.

-Thomas Seay

First-time visitors of Malta are likely to feel awestruck by its unusual rocky landscape, the 5,000 year old megalithic buildings, many of which predate the great pyramids of Giza; the Jewish-inspired labyrinthine catacombs at Rabat with their seemingly endless burial chambers and mysterious passageways; the marvel of European architecture that embellish the entire capital city of Valletta, built by the Knights of the Order of St. John during their 268-year domination of the island; and the ornate, richly frescoed cathedrals gracing the main squares of every village in Malta. One cannot experience Malta without feeling the wealth of history and foreign influences that have shaped this island at the crossroads of European and Semitic civilizations. Indeed, one cannot find literature anywhere about the Maltese that does not praise them for hospitable nature to the nearly million tourists who visit the island each year.

Then along comes Natalino Fenech, a journalist, former member of the Maltese Ornithological Society, and environmental advocate, whose first book, "Fatal Flight," has stirred a great deal of controversy among his fellow Maltese, be they environmentalists, hunters, or bystanders--all of who are now drawn to the debate of bird hunting. According to Fenech's painstakingly detailed statistical tables, millions of birds ranging from kestrels, falcons, and ospreys to owls, harriers, and warblers migrating from Scandinavia and southern Europe to Africa make their unexpected final stop in Malta--either in the cages of trappers or the stuffing tables of taxidermists. Bird trapping and shooting are unregulated, recklessly conducted activities during which hunters trample farmlands, public gardens, and even cemeteries while stalking their prey. Compounding the problem, notes Fenech, is that such behavior is unofficially sanctioned by the still-powerful clergy, which holds "shooters' masses" to bless hunters before they engage in their wanton destruction of wildlife, and equally countenanced by politicians, many of whom are hunters themselves and who fail to take a stand against the killing in fear of voter recrimination.

Fenech traces the historical roots of this pastime, which occupies over five percent of the population (over 18,000 of Malta's 352,430 inhabitants are licensed to shoot or trap, a staggering 273 hunters per kilometer of unbuilt land), and he scrutinizes the socioeconomic factors impacting on its increasing popularity. The colloquial expressions used by shooters reinforce their self-styled myth of machismo and shatter the sensibilities of their nature-loving adversaries. For instance: "I shot at a meadow pipit and smeared it over the ground" Above all factors contributing to the Maltese passion for bird killing, says Fenech, "is the lack of proper education about how to use one's free time."

Fenech offers the result of this perpetual open season on birds with data he collected from other writers, thousands of hours of first-hand observations, and interviews with the hunters who shoot birds and the taxidermists who stuff them. On the low end of his estimates, annual Maltese shootings and trappings on land and sea include 10,000 shearwaters, 16,000 herons and egrets, 6,000 red-footed falcons, 16,000 quail, 4,000 golden plovers, 10,000 woodcocks, 55,000 cuckoos, 11,500 owls, 80,000 swift, 89,000 robins, 240,000 thrushes, and 1 million finches.

Alternating between technical aspects of shooting and trapping and the mores of a people who tolerate such violence, and devoting entire chapters to taxidermists' work records and advancements in shooting paraphernalia, Fenech often loses the narrative force of his compelling argument in the interest of presenting empirical evidence. However, his chapter entitled "Metaphors of Superiority, Masculinity, Virility and Machismo" demonstrates Fenech's acerbic wit and propensity for satire. The section on the latest trend of shooting from sea craft documents the ingenuity of the Maltese shooter and trapper to stay one step ahead of their competition and the police, whose feeble efforts at enforcing laws against unrestricted shooting seem entirely in vain. The concluding chapter on legislation suggests that while the hunter may still have his day, pressures from the European Community, tourists, and environmentalists may some day reverse the institutionalized brutality against nature. Because of the wake-up call issued by "Fatal Flight," the day may be at hand when the Maltese reckon with an issue that smears their national identity.

A meticulously researched, documented and shcolarly work by one of Malta's best journalists. This book is painful but necessary to read for anyone who, like me, is Maltese, but I have to admit this is all true. There is a section of our fellow country-men who like killing birds and this book examines the phenomeon which shames out country to this day. It attempts to understand why people do it and the facts horrify the reader without the author having to embellish anything. It is a much needed work which Maltese will benefit from reading and discussing. Years from now no one will be able to say "we didn't know" !

It is an invaluable book to the collection of all birders' library. It gives an in depth look about the history of hunting in Malta with tables of birds killed, trapped and taxidermy. With diagrams and graphs. Photos, illustrations, and much more.

It talks about the Government politics on hunting. A must buy if you want to learn more about the problem of hunting in the Maltese Islands and if you are interested to stop this evil of hunting and bird killing.

This man has gone against his fellow country men.

He has disturbed the image of the Maltese hunters and lead people believe that Maltese hunters are the only people who shoot birds for food.

This is not a true factual presentation ! .

Daniel Debono