The few smuggled wild finches that survived as hundreds died while being held in quarantine were released earlier in the week, but the operation was far from successful.

This newspaper revealed earlier this month that close to 500 protected wild finches smuggled into the country had died while being held as evidence until court hearings related to the smugglers had been held.

Asked why birds had been released in Comino, the secretariat said they would have had a ‘shorter distance to travel’, but had no clue where they would be travelling to or why

As the court cases were concluded, the remaining birds that survived had to be released.

They were let back into the wild in Comino, but a number of them had to be taken back to quarantine since they had little chance of survival.

When contacted, officials working for the Parliamentary Secretariat for Animal Rights were not aware how many birds had been released, except that “it was much less than the 200”, which had been reported by The Sunday Times of Malta. When asked how many had been taken back, the secretariat could not provide an answer.

Asked why the birds had been released in Comino, the secretariat replied that they would have had a “shorter distance to travel”, but the spokesman had no clue where they would be travelling to or why.

The birds were smuggled in two separate incidents via the catamaran from Sicily.

Aaron Micallef, 35, from Qrendi, pleaded guilty to smuggling some 700 protected birds on October 24. Another smuggling attempt was made by Peter Paul Grech from Gozo with some 50 wild protected finches. These birds were released back into the wild last Monday.

When the vast majority of the smuggled birds died while being held in quarantine, the secretariat ordered an investigation by the veterinary services which requested the immediate intervention of the Attorney General for the remaining birds to be released.

The quarantine section does not have room to hold such a large number of birds.

They were kept in crammed cages, leading to their death since the birds had already suffered stress as a result of the journey.

A surge in demand for wild finches has spurred the illegal trade of protected birds following the government’s decision to reintroduce trapping.

The demand arises because live decoys are needed on trapping sites to lure in the wild birds with their song.

The European Commission is calling on the Maltese government to reconsider its decision to resume finch trapping, arguing there is no justification for its reintroduction.