Analysis of shot protected birds over the past year showed no improvement over the last three years, BirdLife Malta said this morning.
It said that on the first working day of 2010,it received two shot birds both protected by law; a Racing Pigeon and a juvenile Yellow-legged Gull (Gawwija Prima).
The Racing Pigeon was found at the Foresta 2000 site with a gunshot injury to the wing. The Yellow-legged Gull was collected from the shoreline in front of the Radisson Hotel at St Julian's. The young bird had severe gunshot damage to its wing and as a result the wing was almost severed.
BirdLife said it has been receiving regular reports of illegal shooting from the adjacent area of Pembroke.
"BirdLife Malta has been highlighting this issue for many years and has continuously revealed irrefutable evidence of widespread and commonplace illegal hunting. Despite this, the same old problems remain unsolved as the government continues to ignore the true scale of the problem." said Dr. André Raine, BirdLife Malta's Conservation Manager.
"In 2009, BirdLife alone received 95 shot protected birds of 37 species, with almost half of these given additional protection under Annex 1 of the Birds Directive due to their conservation status in Europe. This represents an increase on the 91 shot protected birds received by the organisation in 2008 and the 81 received in 2007.
"In addition to the 95 shot birds received by BirdLife in 2009, a staggering figure of over 200 dead protected birds hidden under rocks or in barrels were recovered from the Mizieb woodland in 2009, a public land claimed as a hunting reserve by the FKNK. The remains of these birds were handed over to the authorities to confirm the cause of death. To this date, nobody has been charged for the crime and no further information has been forthcoming by the authorities."
BirdLife said that while illegal hunting was not a problem that was restricted to Malta, no other BirdLife partner received such a high number of shot protected birds on a regular basis.
In 2009 alone the Natural History Museum received a total of 374 birds confiscated by the ALE or MEPA. This figure was almost four times higher than the number of birds received by BirdLife Malta over the same time period and does not include the birds found in Mizieb.
"Since it took charge of hunting and bird protection related issues after the general elections in 2008, the Office of the Prime Minister has systematically downplayed the true scale of illegal hunting. We invite the Prime Minster to join our surveillance teams in the countryside during peak migration to see the situation for himself. Maybe then he will realise why Malta has such a bad reputation for bird conservation throughout Europe." concluded Dr. Raine.