The Spring Hunting season closed yesterday and Parliamentary Secretary for Animal Rights Roderick Galdes now has two tasks in his in-tray: the setting up of the Wildlife Crime Unit and obtaining a derogation for autumn trapping.

“The Government’s plan is to set up a Wildlife Crime Unit – but we couldn’t do that in a month. We had to use the resources we had: the ALE and the army,” Mr Galdes said, insisting that the army was used “to protect certain natural reserves” and not because “we lost control”.

He also told Times of Malta that a “technical loophole” has been found that would allow the Government to present proposals to the European Union to allow bird trapping in autumn.

“It is difficult – we know that the previous government did not manage this, but we’ll try and when our proposals are ready we’ll share them with the public”.

When asked if trapping would include finches, a sore point for ornithologists, he said: “That could be possible – but one has to see.”

Mr Galdes has two contradictory roles: he is the person responsible for hunting but he also has animal rights under his wing. “My portfolio is a bit hot ... I understand it can be contradictory but in reality hunting is permissible under the EU regulations,” he said, insisting that hunting regulations in Malta were “decided” at the European Court of Justice.

“We are following the Birds Directive and we are not doing anything illegal,” he said.

He stressed that one had to take into consideration that hunting in Malta was a tradition. “I myself love animals but I can’t say that I’m against hunting,” he said, adding that he was in “favour of balance”.

He does not regret the electoral promise to strip hunters of their registration armbands which were introduced to help in enforcement monitoring. “It looked like persecution ... it was never effective.” He also justified the waived €50 spring hunting fee which he deemed “unfair double taxation” on hunters as they already pay a hunting licence.

This Spring saw 3,000 more hunters out in the field and the number of ALE officers went up from 30 to 100. “Law enforcement was praised by both Birdlife and FKNK and whoever abused the law was processed immediately,” he said.

Mr Galdes declared himself dissatisfied with the current enforcement system, which has seen 600 pending cases of hunting offences being clogged up in court. “I want a system whereby minor illegalities are fined on the spot,” he said.

He would not be roped in on the FKNK member who broke the law but has not yet been expelled by the hunting association. “It is not the Government’s role to get involved in the administration of FKNK,” he said.

He was reticent to talk about Birdlife statistics issued yesterday. “I rely on what police tell me. Those are not the official statistics of the Government,” he said. “Statistics don’t seem as alarming as they (Birdlife and the media) tried to depict them.”

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