The number of hunting illegalities in the current autumn hunting and trapping seasons keep mounting but, for some reason, people seem to be more interested in the budget and the Opposition Leader’s personal woes.

It is, in fact shameful that the killing and trapping of protected species of birds is going largely unnoticed.

Birdlife Malta said this week that the number of hunting illegalities has now exceeded 50, and the kills keep mounting. The latest casualties of the autumn hunting season were a Short Eared Owl and a Grey Heron. The latest cases were reported in Manikata and Mellieha and it is quite clear that these abuses are taking place all around the country, including in Gozo.

Birdlife says that, while the number of casualties of the autumn hunting season has reached 50, the total for the entire year stands closer to a hundred.

There has also been rampant abuse where it comes to trapping – another barbarous practice that the government recently gave permission for, despite the warnings by the European Court of Justice.

The Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) has filmed illegal trapping on numerous occasions. Despite the government’s repeated claims that abuse will not be tolerated, illegalities are taking place all around.

CABS this week called on the Parliamentary Secretary responsible for hunting, Clint Camilleri, to close the trapping season with immediate effect. It said this was the only way to safeguard his credibility and to stop the ongoing poaching.

Birdlife Malta recently called on Camilleri – who is himself a hunter – to resign, saying that he was not fit for purpose. But Camilleri is nowhere to be seen right now. Over the past few days he was happily tweeting and retweeting social media posts about the budget, but has not found the time to condemn the latest illegal hunting incidents or to warn his fellow hunters that he will close the season if they keep their barbarism up.

Camilleri recently engaged in a Twitter war with Birdlife and accused the group of not promoting ‘positive’ acts by hunters. But then Camilleri finds it very hard to speak about the countless illegalities taking place all around, even when they are caught on tape and published in the media for everyone to see.

This government has shown over and over again that it will only act when it is politically convenient to do so. It closed the season in 2014 when several storks were massacred. And in 2015 the Prime Minister closed the hunting season when a bird that had been shot fell bleeding into a schoolyard, to the shock of students who were enjoying their lunch break. Back then the PM had said that, despite the fact that illegalities had decreased, the incident was unacceptable.

This happened shortly after the hunting referendum, when the PM could not be seen as going back on his word to stamp out abuse.

The message there was clear – that the incident had left the government with no choice, because not closing the season would seem to be too insensitive and going contrary to what the government had stated.

But no school children have been traumatized by the sight of bleeding birds this year, so there is, of course, no reason to close down the season, even if the number of birds that have been illegally shot is much higher than in 2015.

It is also very worrying that, in next year’s budget, there was no mention at all of investing in wildlife protection and enforcement. Edward Scicluna mentioned the investment planned for several police units, but nothing about the Administrative Law Enforcement (ALE) unit, which is tasked with patrolling the countryside and prosecuting rogue hunters.

Perhaps this is one thing that Clint Camilleri should have tweeted about.