In an interview with The Sunday Times (December 9) Steve Micklewright, the newly appointed Birdlife Malta executive director, insisted that Birdlife does not oppose legal hunting or trapping. Legal hunting in autumn was “OK”, or so he says.
Having only just hatched on the local scene it seems he has a lot to learn about the devious ways of Birdlife Malta. While openly professing their acceptance of legal hunting to gain credibility, their publicly-stated views lead to other conclusions.
I will only refer to two statements made by Birdlife concerning two of the most commonly legally hunted birds in autumn in Malta and in other European states, the starling and the song thrush.
According to Micklewright (The Times, December 12), “Tens of thousands are shot in Malta every year and if it were not for this ‘sport’, starlings would be much tamer and approachable and they would probably breed in larger numbers.”
The second even more relevant statement is from Birdlife’s Nature Notebook, October 23, a weekly Birdlife Malta feature in another newspaper: “For those of you who these past days were roused from their sleep at ungodly hours by ungodly shooting the equally ungodly reason was that armed men in camouflage (gear) were busy killing thousands of these handsome musically inclined bird the song thrush... Many song thrushes would just as happily opt to spend the winter here. But of course that will only happen in a future when the killing of birds for fun is no longer tolerated.”
As regards Birdlife not opposing trapping, its website, under the heading “trapping practices”, lists all forms of trapping methods used in Malta.
The last sentence in this article, “all the above methods are illegal under the Birds Directive”, apart from contradicting Micklewright’s statements, is untrue since the use of clap nets and cage traps is permitted under derogation. (He might recall the common use of the Larsen Trap in the UK being perfectly legal).
If Micklewright can explain how according to him hunting of these birds is “OK” and trapping not opposed when Birdlife would rather not “tolerate” hunting and consider all trapping methods as illegal, hunters and trappers might understand his expressed intention to “build relationships with organisations” or to expect a “better behaviour towards us as an organisation”. Until then he can only expect more of the same.