I refer to the court decision that Birdlife members should be charged over ‘possession’ of dead birds.

The court is sending the wrong message. Instead of asking the police to dedicate more time to investigate the culprits of these despicable acts against protected birds, it demands the investigation of the messengers of such bad news.

These are the people who want to help and are capable of helping injured birds.

I assume that this is what the hunting lobby wants: for NGOs like Birdlife and CABS, who dedicate their time to uncovering such atrocities, to be hindered so as not to uncover and publicise such illegalities.

It is quite convenient for the hunting lobby to then say that illegal hunting is non-existent or is blown out of all proportion.

It is bad enough that in this country illegal hunting is so organised that the authorities cannot cope with what is happening, let alone if we start prosecuting the messengers who, with their limited resources, are able to report a fraction of such incidents.

Ironically, the authorities had launched the Whistleblower Act with much fanfare.