QUITE touching, seeing Chris Packham (BBC’s Springwatch presenter) and his reaction, assisting in the euthanasia of a Montagu’s Harrier (migrant bird of prey) on TV in Malta the other day.

The bird I assume had been badly disabled, during the annual Maltese bird shoot, where tired migrant birds from Africa are picked off while readying themselves for their journey to Europe.

Prince Charles a few weeks earlier had criticised the Maltese for allowing this to happen. Call me a cynic, but I believe Chris was responding by visiting the bird shoot, filming the process for a forthcoming documentary.

Good on him you might say, however there are some blatant double standards here. The Maltese apparently have a small window of opportunity to shoot birds whereas I believe the Crown Estates and The Duke of Westminster’s estates in North Yorkshire have 365 days a year to exterminate the Montagu’s Harrier’s cousin, the hen harrier and other birds of prey. The hen harrier has had a wretched time and is on the brink of extinction.

People who live in glass houses should not throw stones.

Let’s sort out the bird carnage in our own country before attacking other people.

R SIBBALD, Fareham.