We have been following with great interest and full of emotion the incident regarding Sigmar, the lesser spotted eagle who a few days ago was shot by Maltese poachers on its migration route to Africa. As supporters and collaboration partners of both German and Maltese NGOs in joint efforts for a better protection of global biodiversity, we are voicing our disgust at the fact that common and in this case highly endangered European natural heritage is still being blasted out of the skies of Malta by reckless bird shooters.

We would like to thank all those who went out of their way to save the life of this rare bird and get it back to Gemany for further medical treatment. We witnessed the live broadcasting of the arrival of Sigmar at Frankfurt Airport through our German TV station ARD and were very moved to see the bird blinking into the camera, tired and without offering resistance, but obviously happy and thankful to be taken care of.

Our personal thanks in the first place go to the lady with the big heart who found the injured and helpless bird in the fields and notified the ALE who in collaboration with national and European partners in the last years have been doing milestone work in their efforts to protect natural heritage. We would like to further thank Max Farrugia from International Animal Rescue (Malta) who in collaboration with CABS (Committee against Bird Slaughter) and the Maltese authorities made it possible to get the bird to Germany to be nursed back to health. Last not least, a big thanks to Air Malta, our favourite airline on our visits to Malta, who so promptly and unbureaucratically collaborated on the bird's transport.

We would finally like to encourage all nature loving and environmentally conscious Maltese citizens to continue the fight against a bunch of quite obviously sick-minded people terrorising the country and trying to wipe out both national and European natural heritage by supporting the NGOs and the enforcement teams in their relentless efforts to save biodiversity for both present and future generations.

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