BirdLife Malta said yesterday that its office had received yet another protected bird with severe visible gunshot wounds, which left the vet no option but to put it out of its misery. This autumn alone BirdLife Malta offices have received more than 30 protected birds which had been illegally gunned down.

“The young black-headed gull brought in today is the latest victim of poachers in Malta, and is only one, of the many, protected wounded birds, that BirdLife continues to receive,” the conservation manager of BirdLife Malta, André Raine said. “The bird was brought in by an ex-hunter, who was disgusted with the current lack of respect to the law shown by some hunters. In any other country, no self-respecting hunter would be so cowardly as to shoot at a seagull, yet here in Malta now that migration is over, some hunters are shooting at anything that has the misfortune to fly past them,” Dr Raine stated.

The incident follows hot on the heels of some good news from Cyprus, where two men were arrested and brought to court last week following a swift police investigation in connection with the massacre of 52 threatened, red-footed falcons. The accused were charged with the deliberate killing of protected birds and unlawful possession of shotguns in a ‘no hunting’ area. The suspects pleaded not guilty to the charges, which carry a penalty of up to three years imprisonment or a fine of e17,000, or both. The court set the first hearing of the trial for 8 January.

“BirdLife Malta believes that the exemplary response of the authorities in Cyprus was fundamental in securing the arrest of these two individuals,” said Dr Raine. “Unfortunately, BirdLife Malta is currently not receiving sufficient support from the local law enforcement arm responsible for illegal hunting incidents, the ALE. They frequently do not respond to our reports of illegal hunting and trapping incidents, and this is almost certainly due to a lack of resources and manpower, since the ALE is ridiculously understaffed. This simply allows illegal hunters to continue breaking the law, as these criminals are aware that the majority of cases, go unpunished,” he concluded.

BirdLife said that certain statements by Members of Parliament trying to gain political mileage as election day approaches, by bowing to the hunters’ demands, do nothing to help the situation. Most recently Labour MP Joe Abela spoke in Parliament in defence of a man who stopped his car in the middle of a major road to shoot at a protected bird of prey on a Sunday afternoon (when hunting is not allowed), thereby breaking at least three laws at the same time.