Ranger hit in the face by shotgun pellets

One of BirdLife's rangers, Ray Vella, tasted the fate of his winged friends last Monday when he was hit in the face by pellets while in his field in Mellieha.

Luckily, he was only slightly injured by a pellet which lodged itself in his nasal bridge. Other pellets hit his forehead and left cheek but only caused superficial scratches.

It is thought no pellets hit his eyes because they were deflected by the glasses he was wearing.

He was in his field, which overlooks Mizieb, at about 6 p.m. when he heard a shot being fired and felt hot pellets hit his face.

"I put my hand to my face and there was blood on my nose. Then I looked up and saw a hunter running away," he said.

Mr Vella started yelling, pointing out that he had been hit, but the man kept running, actually hurling back abuse, insulting the ranger and "his organisation".

"Frankly, I don't know what to think," Mr Vella said when asked whether he thought it could have been an intentional attack, given the not-so-veiled reference to BirdLife. "I saw no bird in the area and, if it was negligence, the man would have come to see whether I needed help and not run away... Certainly, had it been a panic reaction he would not have insulted me."

The police were immediately alerted. However, Mr Vella complained, it took them an hour to arrive, by which time the shooter had disappeared.

"To be fair, they immediately offered an ambulance which I didn't need but I was very disappointed that it took both the ALE (the Administrative Law Enforcement unit) people and the district police so long to come on site."

He later went to the hospital where a small-gauge pellet was extracted from his nose.

A police report has now been filed and Mr Vella even supplied the police with the car registration numbers of three hunters who happened to be in the area at the time, in the hope that they may help identify the man who fired the shot.

The incident does not seem to have really shaken Mr Vella but he is concerned. "We're feeling the heat lately. I was at the Nadur Tower where the dead birds and the cow dung was left," he said. He was referring to last week's incident when three dead birds of prey, cow dung and broken glass were left at a birdwatchers' observation point in Dwejra.

"It's not pleasant, but it doesn't change anything as far as I'm concerned. I suppose I now know what it feels like to be a bird," he said.

Only last October, as the man responsible for the Foresta 2000 project, Mr Vella saw months of work go down the drain when 3,000 pine saplings he had planted were systematically destroyed in the dead of night.

The government, BirdLife Malta, Din l-Art Helwa and Alternattiva Demokratika condemned the shooting. BLM president Joseph Mangion described it as outrageous and unacceptable.

"Vandalism of nature protection projects, indiscriminate killing of protected species and xenophobic messages inciting violence have become the order of the day. Political parties cannot continue to allow these barbaric acts to continue to be inflicted on the people of Malta," he said.

Hunters' federation secretary Lino Farrugia said, when contacted, that he would rather comment at a later stage as he had only found out that minute about the incident.