It appeared from the article in Times of Malta on Wednesday that it is proposed that trappers be allowed to capture nearly 30,000 birds in the autumn. How can this be?

For a start, the numbers are ludicrous. If there has been a ban on trapping in Malta for these last five years, why have I never seen a single finch, never mind a song thrush? If there have been wild finches in Malta, they could not have had sufficient time to re-establish themselves.

The only finches I have seen have been carried up and down the street in tiny wooden boxes.

Our garden would be the perfect refuge for finches and song birds – plenty of cover, insects, water and seeds. The only birds I have ever seen in Malta, never mind in our garden, have been sparrows, domestic pigeons and the very occasional warbler and robin. Even when walking in the countryside and coming across abandoned trapping nets, the only dead birds I have seen entangled in them have been sparrows and robins.

What is the survival rate of trapped birds one wonders? How many ‘unimportant’ species are left to perish?

What is it with Malta and wanting to torture, kill and trap birds? It is unhappily very obvious that most birds have been wiped out by the successful efforts of earlier shooters and trappers.

Apart from the dwindling numbers of endangered migrants passing through, there are nearly no birds in Malta.

Malta is a Christian country, and should know better than to treat God’s creatures in such a shameful cruel way.