The police are very well equipped to deal with illegal hunting so there is no need for a specific unit for wildlife crimes, according to the government.

The police unit assigned to investigate such crimes was as big as the Drugs Squad and was therefore sufficient, a spokesman for the Home Affairs and Justice Ministry said.

Recently, BirdLife Malta said illegal hunting was rampant despite the spring ban and called for a wildlife crimes unit to be set up in order to investigate the countless reports being made.

Although the police were doing their utmost, they did not have enough resources to carry out the proper investigations, so another unit was needed to complement the prosecution aspect, BirdLife suggested.

But according to the ministry spokesman, the police and the Administrative Law Enforcement unit (ALE) have the resources, "both human and otherwise", that are "more than adequate" to carry out the duties assigned to them.

Reacting to these comments, a spokesman for BirdLife said it was imperative to establish a specially trained and intelligence-led wildlife crimes unit because this would improve the performance and the efficiency of the police. If this were not done, the issue of illegal hunting would keep repeating itself every migration period.

Such an approach, coupled with maximum penalties especially for the repeat offenders, was the most pragmatic way to put an end to this problem and save the police time and taxpayers their money.

BirdLife also called for a nationwide communications campaign against "wild life crimes" to put an end to the illegal persecution of protected species and other wildlife crimes. This would help to change attitudes and encourage compliance with current legislation because this would not come quickly or easily, it said.