Be the first to comment!WBRU has no idea how many Turtle-doves have been shot – BirdLife
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BirdLife Malta has reiterated its claim that the Wild Birds Regulation Unit “has no idea how many Turtle-doves have been shot this spring.”
In the past weeks BirdLife Malta said that it has “received information even from a few genuine hunters, that the system adopted by WBRU is not working and that when they tried to log in their catches they couldn’t get through.”
It said that the informants substantiated their claims with comments within hunting lobby groups, including screenshots as shown.
BirdLife Malta said yesterday that the Turtle-dove national hunting bag limit of 1,500 birds “was exceeded within a week from the opening of the spring hunting season,” in a short statement the Wild Birds Regulation Unit (WBRU) replied that it is monitoring the situation and the quota has not yet been reached.
The eNGO claimed that “traditionally, spring hunting derogations have seen a limited declaration of a few hundred birds during the last few days of the season to prevent the season closing early.”
BirdLife Malta stated on Friday that even if WBRU had to monitor the season, “it could never mitigate the under-declarations made by a hunting community which is motivated to do so, and that it should clearly admit that it is not capable of having the real picture on the amounts of Turtle-doves killed on the Maltese Islands.”
“We also challenge WBRU to honestly state that its digital game reporting system has been suffering serious problems, making hunters unable or unwilling to participate.”
BirdLife Malta CEO Mark Sultana said, “once again we have to repeat that this is nothing but a farce and had it not been the cause of indiscriminate killing of the Turtle-dove, which is nearing extinction, this would be laughable.”
He argued that “this is a serious matter and WBRU has failed in its commitment to safeguard this derogation making it not just illegal – because it targets a bird with a vulnerable status – but also because there is no strict control.”
Sultana concluded by saying, “we have lost faith in convincing the Government to do the right thing and are expecting the European Commission to challenge this breach of the EU Birds Directive with urgency.”
“Example of screenshots sent to BirdLife Malta”
