On Saturday, this newspaper published a call by BirdLife Malta, for the introduction of a specialised Wildlife Crime Unit to cut down on hunting and trapping of protected species.

This newspaper has backed previous calls and will again back this one. The autumn hunting season is almost upon us and opens tomorrow, yet while driving around, one can already hear the distinctive crack of shotguns when heading towards the countryside.

The call made by BirdLife makes sense. When one takes into account that police officers from the Administrative Law Enforcement Unit are finding it increasingly difficult to resist kickbacks offered to them by hunters and trappers to turn a blind eye to illegal activity, it makes all the more sense.

We do not wish this to be interpreted as a witch-hunt of the Police Corps, or in particular the ALE, but the Police Commissioner has taken the issue very seriously and there are a number of investigations which continue.

The ALE is spread very thin on the ground and most of its staff do an excellent job with scant resources. But there is a clear need for a specialised unit to deal specifically with crimes which are related to the harming of protected species of wildlife. One only needs to look at the success registered by the Animal Welfare Department to further support the argument.

The duties carried out by this department used to be carried out by the generic police, but to say that the system was ineffective is an understatement. The prevailing attitude at the time was that the Police Corps had far more important things to do, such as catching muggers, murderers, drug traffickers and people smugglers. We could not agree more. And this is why the Wildlife Crime Unit is needed.

The Animal Welfare Department does not fall under the umbrella of the Police Corps, and this, we believe, is exactly what is needed for the Wildlife Crime Unit. Like the welfare department, they should be afforded legal power, but the key to it is having an entity which does not fall under the Police Corps.

As we have seen with the welfare department, the general public is more comfortable with reporting incidents to an entity which is independent. The same would hold true with a Wildlife Crime Unit. Unfortunately, illegal hunting and hunting of protected species have not been given the due attention which is needed to clamp down on them good and proper. The police do not have the budget to beef up the ALE and they often, excuse the pun, end up chasing their own tails. By the time an incident is reported and they turn up, law-breaking hunters and trappers are long gone. The advent of the mobile phone and its permeation into society is more efficient than any walkie-talkie could ever be.

What is needed is for dedicated individuals – a good number of them – to be engaged in this new unit. It would have to work on a system of patrolling and good relations with hunters and trappers who do observe the law. It is only through co-operation between those preventing breaches of the law and those practising hunting and trapping legally that the problem can truly be tackled.

But in order to do so, the unit would need to be patrolling hunting grounds constantly, even if needs be observing hunters at close range. Those who hunt and trap legally and responsibly would have no problem with such a set-up.