BirdLife Malta has complained to the Attorney General that the Police are not treating Mizieb as a crime scene after the discovery of over a hundred dead protected birds of prey between yesterday and today. It also requested his intervention for an inquiry into the police inaction and for an investigation into the crime.
The letter was written by BirdLife President Joseph Mangion, who explained how the remains of 192 dead protected birds had been found at Mizieb by 3.30 p.m. today.
76 dead birds were found yesterday by members of the Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) and BirdLife Malta's Raptor Camp volunteers. Some of the birds were newly killed while others were the remains of birds killed weeks or months earlier.
"The concealment of protected birds illegally shot is a common practice by poachers. It is mostly done to conceal the evidence in order to escape the consequences of the law or to return and recover the body at a later stage. Alternatively, the bird is too damaged for taxidermy purposes," Mr Mangion wrote.
He said that the volunteers that entered Mizieb yesterday morning did not expect, "by any stretch of the imagination", to discover the shocking number of illegally killed birds in an area that is allegedly fell under the management of the Federation for Hunting and Conservation (FKNK).
"Our volunteers followed the standard operating procedure of calling the Administrative Law Enforcement Unit to record and report the evidence being discovered. To our shock and amazement, however, when the police arrived none of the usual procedures usually applied to a crime scene was implemented. The police made no effort to uncover any evidence or secure the crime scene. They simply recorded what our volunteers were discovering."
Before dusk, thevolunteers had to leave Mizieb.
"The crime scene was not secured by the police and the whole area was left unattended during the night and early in the morning. The area should have been secured to avoid any tampering of evidence by poachers who had ample time available to return to the area in the night to destroy the freshly shot and recently concealed protected birds, after news emerged of the discovery."
Mr Mangion said BirdLife informed the ALE and the Office of the Prime Minister that they would continue to search the area for more evidence this morning and requested police escorts in order to continue to record the discovery as required by law.
At about 7 a.m., police officers came to Mizieb before the volunteers walked into the woodland and they repeated the actions done yesterday - they observed while the volunteers searched the area.
When a dead bird was found, the volunteers called the police officers, took photos and video of the dead birds and upon their instruction handed the birds to police who recorded the details.
"In the light of all that has been listed above, we are obliged to register our serious concern on the lack of law enforcement that occurred in this case and request your intervention to ensure a serious inquiry is held into why such crimes are not being treated with the seriousness they deserve and for a proper investigation to be held to ensure the perpetrators are brought to justice," Mr Mangion said.
Meanwhile the case has also hit the international headlines, with the BBC reporting it prominently on its website today.