'Recently issued regulations contain only BirdLife Malta's proposals'

The Federation for Hunting and Trapping (FKNK) yesterday wrote to the Prime Minister asking him to amend the recently-issued hunting regulations that allow the hunting of ducks and geese from seacraft but prohibits shooting them from land.

The federation also urged the government to engage in discussions "to find a meaningful solution for the government, the police and thousands of hunters and trappers and their families".

The letter, signed by FKNK president Joe Buttigieg, says that the recently-issued regulations contained only BirdLife Malta's proposals and that none of the hunters' proposals had been included.

Mr Buttigieg said the European Commission could be taking advantage of Malta's small size to deny hunters rights that were otherwise available to other European hunters.

In a separate statement, the federation said that according to the legal notice published by the Environment Ministry on March 8, the trapping season for quail and turtle dove opened on Monday and will close on May 20 while the hunting season for the same two species is between April 10 and May 20.

The federation said many trappers had reported that certain police officers were arguing that the season for trapping of these two species was still closed. But ignorance of the law was no excuse, the federation said, both for those who had to follow the law and for those who had to enforce it.

The FKNK said it did not blame anyone for being confused since over the past year there had been confusion in hunting and trapping regulations.

Contacted for a reaction, a police spokesman said the police had not stopped any trapper from trying to trap quail or turtle dove.

"District police who found trappers on the field phoned the Administrative Law Enforcement Unit to confirm whether the restrictions on the size of nets for quail and turtle dove were applicable in the case of turtle dove, and when they were told there were no restrictions, no action was taken," the spokesman said.

The spokesman said about 30 trappers had been booked for trapping finches illegally and 20 or so sets of nets were taken after being found abandoned in various parts of the island.

Police sources said they were finding it difficult to apprehend more trappers because spotters were positioning themselves in strategic locations and were informing other trappers via radio that the police were approaching.