Last week's festivities of Santa Marija were marred by scenes of dead White Storks. A couple of hours after the arrival of a flock of them, I ended up guarding one, now a lifeless carcass, from being taken away by whoever killed it, while frantically attempting to direct clueless district police units to my location for over 70 minutes. The whole scene unravelled in front of a cyclist who stumbled upon 4 storks coming to rest on electricity poles, only to be blasted away within metres of him. Part of the massacre got filmed by his dash-cam.
It's hard to translate one's thoughts and emotions when you're exposed to this. But indeed it is a classic example of the illegal hunting situation in Malta. From one side the activism shown by this cyclist was exemplary, heroic, fantastic. He saw the incident, filmed it, called for help. On the other hand, the endless waiting for police that never show up. The only ALE unit patrolling the countryside was occupied chasing the remaining flock of white storks. The call was passed to district police, who roamed all Dingli and Rabat unable to trace the name of the road we provided, and not being able to assimilate a GPS coordinate. Dingli and Rabat were a hive of pick-ups and 4X4s racing away through country roads that evening. Rumours of another stork shot dead just behind Savio College were later confirmed by a witness.
How is it that still in 2018, a flock of storks arrives, and hunters are quicker to get their aim on them, than enforcement units are able to make a presence? How is it that out of a flock of 18 storks, we end up with a single one surviving, even though in the days that followed, police, BirdLife Malta and CABS representatives stood guard wherever they roosted? The answer is complex yet simple.
Illegal hunting is still a phenomenon that haunts us, and a good proportion of the hunting community are there waiting for that moment no one is looking to add that majestic stork to their collection. Not acknowledging this is tantamount to not attempting to resolve, and this mistake we see happening with successive governments. The stork massacre of this month did not receive a single reaction from our Prime Minister, and the FKNK insulted all's intelligence by blaming the EU for it.
It isn't the law either. A stork can land you a minimum of a €5,000 fine or even a year jail-term. What's the use of having such a law however when the law cannot reach you, and so many loopholes have been placed in it systematically over the years, enough that if you get away with killing a stork, you're not going to be necessarily caught for keeping it in your collection. Over the years hunters were given a free bill to declare and come clean with their taxidermy collections. The result was a humungous number oflisted collections which authorities never had the capacity to check.
The next flock of storks may be already listed in someone's collection. If a hunter gets away with killing and stuffing them, there arefew ways the law can get him on possession. The capacity to thoroughly check these collections currently rests on two officers. Even if they had to dedicate their whole life checking all taxidermy specimens, they'd never make it all until they reach their pension. Experienced and capable personnel do exist, however they are not employed to this task for let's say political expediency. No politician is happy to send enforcement personnel checking up constituents' properties.
So what remains is the ability to catch the act of illegal hunting. To date the only persons equipped with cameras, binoculars and the will to chase around Malta and Gozo at the signal of a flock of storks lies on NGOs like ourselves and CABS. It doesn't take much to realise that the work we do can be easily be done, if not better, by a dedicated police force who has the resources, intelligence and will to chase, investigate and prevent such crime. The ALE unit is currently occupied with fishing illegalities, property evictions, animal welfare cases and busting indoor use of cigarettes in night clubs. The unit has also been systematically stripped of its most experienced officers over the years. All officersknow the minute they take initiative in pursuing crime, they will be transferred away to some Valletta station where no countryside exists and they can deal with anything except bird-related crime. A call from some hunting advisor to government is all it takes.
Our calls for a dedicated wildlife crime unit still holds. Last Wednesday, for possibly the first time in history, the Ornis Committee has agreed unanimously to recommend to government to set up this unit. EU funding opportunities for such an initiative exist. Neighbouring EU countries would be willing to train and equip a Maltese wildlife crime unit. Whether it materialises is a political decision. So is the fate of the next flock of storks that will inevitably migrate this autumn - whether protecting it or letting it be ticked off a taxidermy collection.