The Federation for Hunting & Conservation – Malta (FKNK) has said in a statement that “BirdLife Malta (BLM) have been reported as stating that trappers are abusing the autumn trapping derogation at present in force to permit live-capture of the golden plover and the song thrush, because they are catching finches instead.

“Furthermore, they said that during their surveillance on Gozo they noticed that the police are not monitoring the derogation, and therefore the derogation is not thus being strictly supervised and being used as a cover to catch finches.”

FKNK stated that “BLM wished to tarnish the perfectly legal and well organised and very well strictly supervised autumn trapping derogation, also on Gozo, for the live capture of two huntable species, as said, the golden plover and the song thrush.

“The 1100 or so trappers who applied for the special trapping licence under derogation for the autumn/winter trapping season had to, in the first instance produce a valid map of two trapping sites, duly registered with the Malta Police.”

FKNK pointed out that “no trapper is so stupid as to jeopardize his situation and try to ‘abuse’ any legal system, simply because, the trapper himself has already disclosed his geographical position to the authorities.”

“Secondly, the methods used for the trapping of the two huntable species are not the same that need to be used for live-finch capturing and so the application of the derogation cannot be abused or used as a cover to capture finches. For one thing, the 30mm sq net mesh legally used is the best deterrent in catching the diminutive finches – the mesh is simply too wide for finches to remain entangled in the nets.”

FKNK said that “they praised the Police for their efficient enforcement of the relative regulations that further guarantee that the derogation is being correctly applied. FKNK is also informed that the minor infringements that the police have come across in connection with the application of the derogation at present can be counted on the fingers of one hand.”

“The FKNK sees the correct application of this derogation as a precedent for the immediate future similar correct application of derogation, that a politically-willed government can employ to again permit the traditional socio-cultural passion of finches’ live-capture,” the statement concluded.

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