Hunters shoot back over gulls

BirdLife Malta campaigners seem more interested in exposing illegal hunting than preventing the death of protected birds, two hunters’ groups said yesterday.

The Federation for Hunting and Conservation – Malta (FKNK) and the St Hubert Hunters Malta condemned the killing of 14 protected gulls. But they raised questions over the motives of BirdLife that exposed the killings in a press release sent last week.

BirdLife said the carcasses of 14 protected birds were discovered in an underground chamber at Selmun on Thursday afternoon. Staff went to the site after being alerted by picnickers and then informed the police’s Administrative Law Enforcement unit.

BirdLife recalled that last December it submitted a report to ALE regarding a poacher shooting and killing at least three Yellow-legged Gulls.

A member of the public had taken a photo of a hunter using an illegal gull decoy to attract the birds to hishunting area – which was in the exact same location as the bird tomb found last week, BirdLife said.

The FKNK and KSU said this was a “standardised campaign” that symbolised BirdLife’s attempts to sensationalise such instances rather than nip them in the bud.

“BirdLife Malta seems so interested to ensure it has enough ‘ammunition’ to expose in spring that it is prepared to allow illegalities to continue from December of the previous year rather than to take immediate and decisive action that would have ensured both the safety of birds exposed to further illegalities as well as the capture of the perpetrator,” they said.

While reiterating their condemnation of any such bird crime, the two organisations expressed their satisfaction at BirdLife’s confirmation that the vast majority of the 6,500 licensed spring hunters were abiding by the conditions of the spring hunting derogation.