CABS reports on protected birds being shot in Malta & Gozo

The international conservation organisation Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) has today released interim results, including video footage, from the first week of Operation ‘Honey Buzzard’ that has been conducted on Malta and Gozo since a week ago Saturday.

CABS said its volunteers have registered to date “the shooting down of more than 25 protected birds and have managed to record most of these incidents on film. In addition a freshly-shot Marsh Harrier, a live Hoopoe with gunshot wounds, a badly wounded Grey Heron and 13 dead Bee-eaters were discovered in various locations on Malta and Gozo.”

“The hotspot of poaching activity this past week has been the area around the international airport.” CABS said, “a total of 10 birds of prey and a Grey Heron have been shot down or shot at around Safi over the past nine days.”

Committee spokesperson Axel Hirschfeld comments, “As far as hunting is concerned total anarchy rules in Safi. The police are doing their utmost but the use of their normal reactive tactics in the difficult terrain, with a maze of high walls and trees offering ideal concealment for the poachers, is inadequate in terms of law enforcement and prosecution. New proactive tactics, to include a substantial temporary concentration of manpower, are needed if the situation in Safi is to be brought under control.”

“On the morning of 16 September, the second day of CABS operations, a team in Safi filmed a hunter shooting at a strictly protected Osprey. The video shows clearly the bird flinching under the impact of the shot. Several minutes later the same team filmed several hunters shooting at a Marsh Harrier and downing it. The conservationists called the police who searched the area but were unable to find either the bird or the perpetrators,” CABS said.

“The peak of the excessive poaching in Safi was yesterday, Sunday, when a single CABS team filmed the shooting down of two Marsh Harriers and a Common Kestrel, as well as the shooting at three more birds of prey at least by hunters. A police search here was also fruitless.

“The poacher who shot at two Honey Buzzards near the Nadur tower, Malta, on 20 September also escaped detection. Although a CABS team captured the incident on video the poacher managed to get away without being identified,” CABS said.

“On the same day a person or persons unknown laid out a dead rat and rabbit, as well as a freshly shot Marsh Harrier, at an observation point used daily by CABS near Bingemma,” CABS said, “obviously as a warning to the volunteers. The corpse of the Marsh Harrier was taken to a vet and x-rayed and the cause of death was clearly established to shot gun injuries, from no less that 14 lead pellets. The bird was handed over to the police.”

CABS said in its report that “on 21 September, in the ditch of Bingemma Fort a CABS team found the remains of 13 freshly-shot Bee-eaters. The corpses or remains of protected birds had been found at the same spot last year. The birds had clearly been used by hunters for target practice and later dumped in the deep and overgrown ditch. The police have initiated proceedings against a person or persons unknown.”

On Gozo on 20 September CABS said that “police found a freshly shot Hoopoe whilst searching for a Honey Buzzard that had been shot down in view of a CABS team deployed to Sarraflu. The bird’s injuries were treated by a vet who confirmed that the bird was shot. Despite intensive care the bird did not survive.

“On the following day, between San Lawrenz and Gharb on Gozo, a CABS team witnessed a hunter shooting at a Honey Buzzard that flew on uninjured. Although they were unable to film the incident they kept the man under observation and called the police. A search of his possessions showed that he was using illegal heavy gauge ammunition. He will be charged accordingly,”

CABS said in the report that “in the past week further offences against the hunting law witnessed by CABS teams included the shooting down of Hobbies and protected song birds, illegal trapping of Golden Plovers in Marsascala, finch trapping in the Ghajnsielem area of Gozo, the use of illegal electronic decoy devices, the use of weapons capable of firing more than 3 shots in succession as well as illegal hunting after the afternoon curfew.”

CABS teams will remain on Malta and Gozo until 7 October in order to record incidents of illegal hunting and to assist the police in the detection and prosecution of poachers.

Photographs show the shot Hoopoe in Gozo and Marsh Harrier shot in Malta – CABS.