As the autumn hunting season came to a close yesterday, BirdLife Malta said that “figures now show that 2020 has become a new record year for illegal hunting, with 210 known illegally shot protected birds retrieved.”

In a statement BirdLife is said that “last year had as many illegal hunting casualties as the totals of 2019 and 2018 put together.”

According to the NGO, “this amounts to nearly double the total of illegal hunting casualties recovered in 2018 which was – so far – the record year for illegalities (114) since 2013.”

BLM stressed that “these numbers are only the tip of the iceberg as they represent only a small fraction of the total of illegally shot protected birds since most of those shot are collected by hunters, mainly for taxidermy, and never recorded.”

It went on to criticise the enforcement and justice situation, which BirdLife said, “still leaves much to be desired, as witnessed during both the hunting and trapping seasons; with police struggling with resources, and with the newly set up Environmental Protection Unit (EPU) proving to be just a change in name from the Administrative Law Enforcement (ALE) unit, having so far failed to make any significant inroads.”

Testament to this, BirdLife said, “is the fact that the wildlife crime cases which BirdLife Malta and the Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) have reported to the police are now facing the risk of falling through due to late summoning.”

“It therefore comes as no surprise that in December the European Union (EU) announced it is taking action against the Maltese Government on all ongoing hunting and trapping derogations,” said the NGO.

The European Commission is questioning Malta’s spring hunting season allowing hunting of Quail, the trapping derogation allowing trapping of Golden Plover and Song Thrush, and also the trapping of finches for “research purposes.”

The two Letters of Formal Notice sent by the European Commission to the Maltese Government also cover the illegal hunting situation in the Maltese Islands together with the failure of the game-reporting system by hunters, BirdLife said. The looming deadline to respond expires on Wednesday, it added.

“The Ornis Committee, which advises the Minister on bird hunting seasons and derogations, has been defunct for a number of months now, and is still in the process of being reappointed,” the NGO stated.

BirdLife Malta formally called for a meeting when the infringements were issued on 3rd December, it said.

BirdLife Malta concluded by saying that “all this confirms the failure of the Gozo Ministry to manage the situation with the Wild Birds Regulation Unit (WBRU) which is supposedly also responsible to aid police on enforcement issues.”

Photo by BirdLife Malta: “illegally shot protected Short-toed Eagle recovered from Gozo in October 2020, part of a flock of 12 that was met with gunfire on arrival in Gozo”

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