Bird camp volunteers ‘assaulted’

A British volunteer was assailed by two men and a German birdwatcher was punched in the face during a mission to search for dead protected birds in Miżieb, it was claimed yesterday.

The incidents were said to have happened just before the joint press conference by BirdLife and the Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) to protest against the lack of police investigations into bird killings.

CABS volunteer Fiona Burrows said: “We had been searching the woods for bodies of bird species which had been killed. I had just found a dead falcon under a rock when these two men ran at me, shouting, screaming and gesturing. I was quite frightened.”

The 26-year-old woman from Nottingham, who believes the two men were hunters, said one of them crushed the falcon remains with his foot to destroy the evidence when he saw her, while the other grabbed her by the arm and shook her shouting: “You shouldn’t be here. Go away.”

“At that point I thought they were going to abduct me because they had their trucks close by and I genuinely thought they were going to take me away. Especially because there was no one in the vicinity who could help me,” Ms Burrows said.

The men grabbed the bag of dead birds she was holding and tried to wrestle it from her hands. However, Ms Burrows would not let go and the men ended up pulling her around with the bag to try and get it off her, she said.

“I felt quite intimidated so I started shouting for help as I was quite desperate for anyone to help me. Luckily one of the other team members managed to hear me and came to help,” the volunteer said.

The men then asked to be taken to her boss and Ms Burrows and the other volunteer took them to meet the rest of the team, where, she said, they continued to be aggressive and the police were called in.

The men continued to argue with the BirdLife and CABS officials in the road outside Miżieb.

German CABS media officer Axel Hirschfeld was punched in the face by another person, also claimed to be a hunter, in the presence of police officers, CABS said.

The situation eventually calmed down with the help of the police. The two volunteers will be pressing charges against the men. The hunters’ federation, FKNK, did not issue a statement about the incidents and could not be reached for comment.

When the press conference started, BirdLife and CABS called for a proper investigation into the bird slaughter and thorough enforcement of the hunting laws.

Next to a banner stating Miżieb Cemetery: One Year On No Investigation, members of the two organisations presented some of the dead birds they found yesterday to the press, before handing them to the police.

BirdLife said yesterday’s find mirrored last year’s when more than 200 dead protected birds were discovered stashed away throughout the Miżieb woodland. In just a few hours yesterday, the team said they found over 80 dead protected birds stashed away in the same area.

Organisation officials said that, although the authorities had said they would conduct an investigation into last year’s find, no results had been disclosed and no one had been convicted of the crimes to date.

“By ignoring Malta’s largest wildlife crime incident in recent years the authorities are simply harbouring the perpetrators of such crimes, thereby empowering them in their continued defiance of the law,” David Conlin, CABS operations and police liaison officer, said.

Mr Conlin said the police unit looking after bird protection remained understaffed with only 22 police officers, stressing that a wildlife crime unit was needed.

“Miżieb is also littered with illegally built hunting and trapping hides, some inside the Simar bird sanctuary. FKNK (the hunting federation) places signs on public land telling people where they may and may not go,” Geoffrey Saliba, BirdLife campaigns coordinator, said.

So Mr Saliba hammered a sign reading: “Public Right Of Way – Reclaim Your Countryside” next to the old one.

The organisations said they witnessed widespread illegalities during their camp, which ends on Sunday. A report will be drawn up at the end of the camp, which will be presented to the police and the government.