Rather than commending the Government or offering a cooperative hand to the hunting organisations in their bid to eradicate abuse, Birdlife preferred to conduct their own independent observations that infallibly resulted in hundreds of incidents no one could verify, St Hubert Hunters (KSU) said.

In a statement following a statement issued earlier by Birdlife, KSU said that in view of Birdlife's repeated false and damaging allegations, it called on the Government to monitor all the activities of the Birdlife Raptor and Spring Watch Camp participants for any possible abuse in terms of trespass, harassment of hunters and false reporting.

"Birdlife Malta’s internationally publicised unverified allegations are just as damaging to Malta as the few remaining law breakers and as such should be policed with equal vigor," they said.

Birdlife contended that Government’s commitment to increase personnel to enforce hunting regulations and apprehend any law breaker was, as was to be expected, still not to their satisfaction.

The organisation persisted with twisting facts to the detriment of the law enforcement officers and legal hunting for their own egoistic purposes, KSU charged.

It said that the statistics provided by the enforcement authorities proved without doubt that illegal hunting was not only declining but was far detached from the figures declared by Birdlife.

KSU commended the authorities for taking up the issue seriously and testified that their records of police patrolling during hunting hours and the curfew period disproved Birdlife’s allegations of inadequacy.