Hunters insist Birds Directive allows trapping

The hunters’ federation has written to EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas to insist that turtle dove, quail, the song thrush and the golden plover are listed Annex II of the Birds Directive and can therefore be hunted.

The federation was reacting to what it said was misleading information by Birdlife Malta that the accession treaty forbids trapping of those species after the end of the year.

“As far as we have been told, also by EU quarters, the directive does not make a distinction whether such Annex II species are shot or taken alive using acceptable methods. All four species, and previously also others that are normally used as call birds, have been captured alive on the Maltese Islands since time immemorial, and their small-scale capture is carried out by traditional selective manually operated clap-nets. All four species are to be found in abundant numbers all over the European territory, and thus it would be unimaginable for anyone to believe that the small harvest of tiny Malta could ever cause the disappearance of any of the species from the wild,” the federation said.

“How can the EU permit that the same species are shot and thus killed, plucked or skinned for taxidermy purposes, cooked and consumed, and disallow their capture for the purpose of keeping alive in captivity when it is a well known fact that these birds live longer in captivity than in the wild?” the federation asked.