Two men cruelly beat injured bird to death

Birdwatchers were moved to tears when they witnessed two men cruelly beating an injured bird to death with a rock early yesterday morning in Magħtab.

One of the five birdwatchers, Andre Raine, Birdlife's conservation manager, said they saw two men walking through a field when their dog suddenly pulled a young marsh harrier, a protected bird, from the grass. But because it had already been shot, the terrified bird began wildly flapping its wings and blindly running through the field.

Seeing this, the men ran after it and, when they caught the bird, one of them pinned it to the ground while the other picked up a rock and beat it twice on the head, Mr Raine said.

By this time he had managed to retrieve his video camera and was filming the two men slaying the bird.

The shaky video then shows one of the men pick up the lifeless bird and hide it beneath the rocks of a nearby rubble wall. He carries on walking through the field with the other man, occasionally looking back to the place where the bird was hidden.

One of the birdwatchers, still unnoticed by the two men, then dialled the emergency number and spoke to the police, who were soon at the scene. When they saw the video they arrested the two men, who are now expected to be arraigned over cruelty to animals and killing a protected bird.

Dr Raine said the gunshot on the bird's wing was only days old and it was probably starving.