Environment ranger's farm torched

Arsonists have struck at a small farm belonging to a BirdLife ranger who was shot at and hit in the face by pellets last October.

The conservation group said three rooms owned by Ray Vella on a parcel of land in Mellieħa, where he kept some rabbits, were torched early yesterday morning.

The Foresta 2000 ranger saw smoke billowing from the rooms when he went to his field at around 7.30 a.m. in an area known as Ta' Penellu.

The bales of hay stored at the entrance of his field as well as the three rooms used for storage had been set alight, destroying farming equipment and killing four of his pregnant does which died suffocated.

On top of this, spent engine oil was dumped in a well, polluting the fresh water reservoir, while the wall of a second reservoir was destroyed.

The police are investigating the incident.

Last October, Mr Vella was shot at by a man who was hunting nearby. He was only slightly injured by a pellet which lodged itself in his nasal bridge. Other pellets hit his forehead and left cheek but caused only superficial scratches.

A year earlier, as the man responsible for the Foresta 2000 afforestation project in Mellieħa, he saw months of work go to waste when 3,000 pine saplings he had planted were systematically destroyed at the dead of night.

BirdLife condemned yesterday's incident. The conservation group also complained that no one had been brought to book for the vandal attacks targeting its conservation sites or the property of its members. It recalled the oil spill at the Għadira nature reserve, the destruction of the EU LIFE project signage at Rdum tal-Madonna and the torching of three cars belonging to birdwatchers at Buskett. BirdLife president Joseph Mangion has contacted the Office of the Prime Minister to express the organisation's ire at the fact that no one has been arraigned over the past attacks.

"It is very clear to me that today's attack will not be the last one directed at BirdLife and its volunteers as these criminal acts continue to go unpunished," the NGO's executive director, Tolga Temuge said.

Alternattiva Demokratika condemned the arson attack. While expressing solidarity with Mr Vella, the party encouraged BirdLife not be intimidated by such cowardly acts.