FKNK Council officers acquitted

Officials of the Federation for Hunting & Conservation - Malta (FKNK) have been acquitted in a Court Case where in the police, on a BirdLife Malta report, arraigned them for releasing several birds back into the wild, allegedly breached bird-ringing regulations because they had marked the birds with split-rings before their release, the federation said today.

It said that during the FKNK secretary's testimony reference was also made to the Prime Minister's reply to two supplementary questions in Parliament, when Dr Gonzi had linked traditional bird-capturing with bird-ringing.

The FKNK recalled that in NOvember last year, it made a presentation to the Prime Minister and to the Leader of the Opposition of a dossier regarding the continuation of the "traditional socio-cultural Maltese passion" of wild birds captured with nets for the purpose of keeping any caught birds in captivity.

Since part of the dossier was based on compensatory measures, after the Press Conference the FKNK symbolically put back into the wild over 100 marked linnets, three marked song thrushes, four marked turtle doves and a marked golden plover. The FKNK also made a symbolic donation of a further 28 marked linnets and two marked serins to the Government Ghammieri Captive Breeding Project a week later.

The trappers, who had every right to keep the birds as their possession in captivity, gave the birds of their own free will and against no payment to the FKNK in the full knowledge that after being marked the birds would be released into the wild.

The FKNK said it had wanted to put some form of identification on the birds before release.

"They might as well have been marked with some paint, however the most adequate, practical and convenient manner was to put rings on the birds' legs. The appropriate iodized split rings were ordered and bought from a reputable company in Scotland that also supplies licensed bird-ringers around the world with same. The proper tools to put on the rings were also ordered from a similar reputable company in the UK."

BirdLife Malta had objected to this gesture claiming that this action was illegal and sought legal redress against the FKNK Council Members, the federation said.