Federation for Hunting & Conservation Malta (FKNK) council member and hunting lobbyist David Briffa has been “caught red-handed” by the Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) and the police while he was catching finches in a field near Hal Farrug on Saturday – one day before the opening of the trapping season, CABS stated.

CABS said that video footage published on its YouTube channel “shows Briffa placing cages with live Hawfinches and Greenfinches near a clap net in the early morning hours. He then can be seen sitting in his hide and waiting for birds to land on his trap.”

CABS said two sets of clap nets and 14 live decoys were confiscated. “Briffa is expected to stand trial for illegal trapping during the closed season.”

“This case once more shows/reflects the hypocrisy of the FKNK whose representatives never miss a chance to play down the dimension of poaching on Malta,” CABS Press Officer Axel Hirschfeld said, adding that “also FKNK CEO Lino Farrugia has been convicted of encouraging illegal bird trapping in the past.” According to a report from the Times of Malta the FKNK, after learning about the case, has stripped off Briffa of all of his posts and duties within the organisation, said CABS.

CABS praised the police for their professional handling and called upon the Government to immediately “stop their so called finch trapping research project which started last Sunday and is being organised with the help of FKNK.”

“All their talk about science and research are just fog candles to hide their true agenda which is: trapping and keeping as many birds as possible, as Mr. Briffa did on Saturday,” Hirschfeld added. Earlier this week CABS – together with BirdLife Malta – slammed the Government´s decision to once again open a finch trapping season labelling it an illegal licence-against-votes-scheme.

Photo and video by CABS

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