It was welcome news yesterday when the FKNK, Malta’s main hunting lobby, called for the establishment of a wildlife crimes unit and when it said it was in perfect agreement with BirdLife Malta on the subject after witnessing what appears to have been unabated illegal hunting over recent weeks – even though the autumn hunting season is now in full swing and after the FKNK deemed the recent verdict by the European Court of Justice a victory for the cause of spring hunting in Malta.

Now, perhaps more than ever, the setting up of such a unit is warranted. The fact that Malta sorely needs a well-equipped wildlife crimes unit speaks volumes for a country as deprived as it is of wildlife.

The organisation, however, made no reference to what has been described as a ‘mass grave’ of protected birds in Mizieb a week ago today.

There are several conspiracy theories as to the identity of the real culprits. Ornithological organisations lay the blame squarely at certain hunters’ feet, while some hunters are crying foul over the discovery and are claiming hunters are being framed.

The latter, very much in all likelihood, is nonsense. So is the government’s reluctance to issue any kind of statement on the atrocity, considering the fact that at least 201 crimes were committed in a relatively small area, many of which were on a single morning. What, one would ask, would happen if, for example, dozens or hundreds of cars were broken into and their radios stolen in a single night in Sliema, Qormi or Valletta?

In addition, the authorities should also be looking to cash in on the new and improved fines that have been introduced but which, by all accounts, have been meted out in numbers nowhere resembling the real extent of illegal hunting.

We are told that investigations into the Mizieb massacre are underway, but other reports suggest the police have handled the matter somewhat half heartedly. Earnest, decisive action is required against the culprits, both bird conservationists and hunters would agree,

In spring 2007 the government made the sudden announcement that the spring season was being brought to an early end 10 days early following an alleged massacre of honey buzzards. While that has not been something clearly must be done, perhaps once the authorities are in a better position to judge for themselves.

There is also the somewhat concerning situation, by the FKNK’s own acknowledgment, in which mentally disturbed hunters, some apparently suicidal and others on antidepressants, are roaming the countryside – a dangerous situation at best. Bird watching groups, possible targets for such apparently disgruntled hunters, are quite right to demand action in that respect.