Hunting illegalities in the last autumn season decreased by a third compared to 2013, according to Animal Rights Parliamentary Secretariat.
During the last five-month autumn season, which ended in January, the authorities uncovered 106 offences which resulted in action being taken against some 83 hunters.
In a statement, the secretariat said the statistics collected by the Wild Bird Regulation Unit indicated a “sustained and pronounced” reduction across most of the categories of bird-related crime, in comparison with the 2013 and 2012 seasons.
The previous season had seen 158 illegalities.
The secretariat said an increase in the penalties for offences, implemented in two stages over the past 16 months, had provided a substantial legal deterrent, whilst the doubling of enforcement effort on the ground ensured that those who broke the law were apprehended and effectively prosecuted.
Over the last season, law enforcement authorities conducted around 16,500 field inspections, double the number of inspections conducted during the same period in 2013. Over 2,550 spot-checks were also conducted upon individual hunters.
That season had been temporarily suspended in October because of illegalities and some 200 irate hunters had taken to the streets of Valletta to hold an unauthorised protest march.
They had hurled profanities at the government and pointed riffle cutouts at the Presidential Palace before assaulting journalists.
Others took to Buskett, where around a dozen hunters allegedly violently attacked ornithologists, seriously injuring a picnicker and robbing an amateur photographer of thousands of euros of equipment.
Earlier this year, Times of Malta reported that during the temporary suspension Birdlife had recorded as many as 120 illegalities, when no hunting was meant to be taking place whatsoever.
NO HUNTING INCIDENTS IN SPRING
Meanwhile, the Yes campaign in favour of Spring hunting referendum noted that Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Abela, replying to a parliamentary question, said the number of hunting-related incidents reported by non-hunter victims over the past few years only amounted to one. The report was about someone who alleged being showered by spent ‘dead’ lead-pellets. The minister further added that the reported incident occurred during the Autumn hunting open season and not in the Spring.
"These facts completely extinguish the fear, that the campaigners who want to abolish Maltese traditional spring hunting are orchestrating in their attempt to alarm the general public. Furthermore, it is adequate to inform the general public, that traditional Maltese spring hunting is only permitted on 20 half-days. A mere 8% of the whole spring period," the campaign said.
It hoped that the remainder of the referendum campaign would be based on facts and truths, "and not on dreads and alarms in further attempts to smear law-abiding Maltese hunters."