The Committee Against Bird Slaughter has filmed more than 25 protected birds being shot down, most of them during the first week of its Operation Honey Buzzard, the Germany-based conservation organisation said yesterday.
Instead of insisting with the hunters’ organisations on the need for all their members to abide by the law, both PN and PL are caught up in this vote-grabbing race
The operation is intended to monitor bird hunting during the open season.
In addition, a freshly shot Marsh Harrier, a live Hoopoe with gunshot wounds, a badly wounded Grey Heron and 13 dead Bee-eaters were discovered in various locations around Malta and Gozo, CABS said.
It identified the hotspot of poaching activity this past week as being the area surrounding the international airport.
Ten birds of prey and a Grey Heron were shot down or shot at around Safi over the past nine days.
Committee spokesman Axel Hirschfeld said: “As far as hunting is concerned, total anarchy rules in Safi.
“The police are doing their utmost but the use of their normal reactive tactics in the different terrain, with a maze of high walls and trees offering ideal concealment for the poachers, is inadequate in terms of law enforcement and prosecution.
“New proactive tactics, to include a substantial temporary concentration of manpower, are needed if the situation in Safi is to be brought under control.”
On September 16, CABS filmed a hunter shooting at a strictly protected Osprey in Safi, followed by a group of hunters shooting at a Marsh Harrier and downing it.
The police were called on site but could not locate the bird nor the perpetrators, according to the organisation.
The “excessive poaching” in Safi reached its peak last Sunday, CABS said, when the team filmed the downing of two Marsh Harriers and a Common Kestrel, as well observing shooting aimed at three birds of prey. A police search yielded no outcome.
On the same day, an unknown individual laid out a dead rat and rabbit, as well as a freshly shot Marsh Harrier, at an observation point used daily by CABS near Binġemma, “obviously as a warning to the volunteers”.
The bird’s death was established by an X-ray examination as being caused by 14 lead pellets.
On Friday, a CABS team witnessed a hunter shooting at a Honey Buzzard that flew on uninjured between San Lawrenz and Għarb.
A search of the hunter’s possessions by the police revealed that he was using illegal heavy gauge ammunition. He will be charged accordingly.
Alternattiva Demokratika called upon the Government to “beef up enforcement”.
“Instead of insisting with the hunters’ organisations on the need for all their members to abide by the law, both PN and PL are caught up in this vote-grabbing race and try to accommodate them at all costs, including by opening the spring hunting season”, spokesman Simon Galea said yesterday.
Federation for Hunting and Conservation (FKNK) president Joe Perici Calascione told The Times: “We condemn the acts of such hunters. They are doing us a lot of harm by giving law-abiding hunters a bad name.
“Members of the FKNK are on the lookout for such instances of abuse; in fact, we have withdrawn a number of memberships from transgressive hunters.”