“The Government denies the allegation that it is proposing an amnesty for illegally stuffed birds,” the Parliamentary Secretariat for Agriculture and Animal Rights said in a statement today.
Referring to media reports of a press conference held by Birdlife Malta prior to the Ornis meeting held on Monday evening, the Secretariat said that “this allegation is a gross misrepresentation of the nature and the context of draft proposals put forward for Committee’s discussion, prior to further consideration by the Government.
None of the draft proposals involves an amnesty for illegally stuffed protected birds, the statement said.
The Secretariat pointed out that “the technical proposal which Birdlife quoted out of context concerns penalties for declaration of protected bird specimens held prior to 31st May of 2003, but which were not declared to the authorities during the 2003 registration exercise.
“Under this proposal, persons voluntarily declaring such specimens to the authorities may be penalised according to the currently applicable levels of fines, in order to regularise their position, and to avoid much higher penalties proposed to be introduced.”
It added that “the proposal does not involve an amnesty, and would not apply to cases such as the example of an illegally shot stork quoted by Birdlife (Malta) in its statement on Monday evening.”
The Secretariat concluded that “one should also note that none of the preliminary technical proposals constituted an official government position, and this was clearly communicated to the Committee, which the Government wished to consult.”