BirdLife Malta complained today that there were no police ALE units patrolling the countryside on the opening weekend of Malta's autumn hunting season, and it has already started receiving shot protected birds.

Among them were an adult Night Heron and a juvenile Bee-eater, both protected species, received on on Saturday, the first day of the autumn hunting season. Both had suffered gunshot wounds.

This morning BirdLife Malta received the third injured protected bird since the start of the season, a juvenile Marsh Harrier, with visible gunshot injuries. The bird was taken to vet and the authorities were informed.

"Despite a government statement last week that police would "monitor closely the observance of hunting regulations and conditions", Administrative Law Enforcement officers were assigned to other duties," the society said.

It said that since August, it had reported 18 active illegal trapping sites tothe  police. Half of these illegal trapping sites had already been reported to the police last year.

"The ALE were unavailable to respond to any of the incidents of illegal trapping reported by BirdLife Malta teams, referring all calls to the Local or District police. The lack of specifically trained officers lead to police failing to locate live decoy birds, neglecting to remove nets or to confiscate illegal tape lures which play calls to attract birds.

"When BirdLife Malta's surveillance teams revisited the areas only a few days later the sites were again actively trapping and targeting protected birds.

"This demonstrates, yet again, the falsity of claims that hunting and trapping law is strictly enforced by the Maltese authorities" the society said.