BirdLife Malta has today published a video summary of what it said are the “illegalities witnessed during the 2021 spring hunting season.”
Due to the Covid-19 restrictions, BirdLife said that they could not welcome international volunteers to help monitor the season, “but in spite of this, with just an average of two small teams out in the field every morning, rampant hunting illegalities were observed across the areas covered in Malta and Gozo.”
BirdLife stated that, “as widely anticipated, the smokescreen hunting season supposedly open only for Common Quail – which purposely coincided with the peak migration of the protected European Turtle-dove – had once again the vulnerable turtle-dove as its main target.”
BirdLife went on to say that “after the action announced by the hunting lobby in the past days, following the publication of this video, the hunting lobby’s defence will probably once again be to try to have the general public believe that the observation of these illegalities constitutes some kind of invasion into the hunters’ “rights” to enjoy their privacy or property.”
According to BirdLife, “every episode in this video amounts to illegal hunting, with hunters seen stationary in their hides waiting for incoming turtle-doves (not one single hunter was seen trying to flush a quail, which was the only legally huntable species this spring), or blatantly and deliberately shooting on turtle-doves and other protected species.”
BirdLife Malta said that it would like to make it clear that “all footage in this video was filmed from public spaces, clearly demonstrating acts which are in breach of the law and which we expect to be brought to justice.”
It stressed that illegalities, particularly relating to the “illegal killing of turtle-doves were detected on a daily basis during the season. BirdLife Malta and police also recovered a number of illegally shot turtle-doves suffering from various gunshot injuries.
This video will now be presented to the European Com”mission as part of the evidence of how Malta’s derogation for the hunting of Common Quail in spring has once again been used to allow hunters to target the protected European Turtle-dove, BirdLife said.
BirdLife Malta concluded its statement by saying that, “in view of the fresh infringement procedures initiated by the European Union against Malta in December 2020 over concerns that last year’s season coincided with peak migration of turtle-dove, opening this year’s season during the same period (10th-30th April) will leave the European Commission no other option than to take Malta to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) since it has failed to show how it is protecting the turtle-dove from extinction.”
Photo and Video: BLM; Shot-European-Turtle-dove Wardija – Warning some parts of the footage contain foul language which some might find offencive.