The Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) said that in the last week, more than 20 cases of illegal bird poaching were heard in the Malta Criminal Court.
CABS said that 11 poachers were sentenced to fines ranging between €1000 and €3000. In addition, their hunting licenses were revoked for two to three years respectively.
The men had all been caught by CABS teams in the act of using clap-nets to catch finches in the autumn of 2022, the organisation said.
CABS went on to explain that linnets, goldfinches and chaffinches are coveted cage birds.
“In addition to our fieldwork, filing criminal charges, processing evidence, and attending court have become a significant part of our work,” the organisation said.
It stressed that “the fact that penalties are unfortunately still too low is shown by the results of our current operation in Malta – within just under three weeks we have already caught more than two dozen bird poachers trapping finches.
CABS claimed that “many poachers apparently misunderstand the fines as a kind of `bird-catching fee,’ which they quickly recoup by selling the illegally captured songbirds.”
Photo by CABS