BirdLife Malta has said that over the past weeks, as news of the Covid-19 outbreak ruled headlines in Malta, its staff has “kept busy keeping tabs with wildlife crime in our countryside.”
In a statement the eNGO said that, “the illegal killing of birds we have recorded over the past weeks was not simply in the form of illegally hunting birds but also illegal trapping of finches in various parts of Malta and Gozo.”
“While the Administrative Law Enforcement (ALE) police unit was still operational during the first days of our fieldwork, the unit was eventually absorbed on Covid-19 quarantine duties, leaving such enforcement matters to District Police which managed to attend and in some cases attend to our calls,” said BLM.
It went on to say that finch trapping during March and April, despite being illegal, was recorded along various parts of especially coastal areas in Malta and Gozo.
BLM stated that “trappers have evidently had a field day catching finches, with some even getting confiscated items back, and continuing to trap nonchalantly as we show in this video.”
The eNGO explained that trapping at this time of the year is illegal, with all finch species being protected from illegal capture following the landmark June 2018 European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling.
According to BLM, “the catching of especially Linnets is popular in coastal garrigue areas, with trapping sites typically being cleared of natural vegetation for the laying of nets.”
BirdLife thanked “the many people for their support and for reporting these incidents to us, and to police for their action, despite the difficulties the police corps are facing in the current situation.”
BirdLife Malta concluded by saying that “in regard to yesterday’s announcement by the government that this year’s spring hunting season will open, we are still waiting for the legal notice to be published and will issue our official reaction once this is published.”
Photo and video by BirdLife Malta – photo shows a “trapping site at Bahrija”