Illegal bird trapping ‘explodes’ since season’s opening last Saturday

The illegal trapping of protected bird species has “exploded” since the government opened the season for the capture of song thrush and golden plover, the Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) said yesterday.

In the last three days, CABS teams monitoring the Maltese countryside filmed and reported dozens of cases of severe abuse to the police. These included trapping of protected greenfinches, siskins, hawfinches, chaffinches and ring ouzels as well as trapping on unregistered sites and the use of illegal bird callers, the group said.

Illegal finch trapping was recorded in Qrendi, Żurrieq, Santa Katarina, Fomm ir-Riħ, Mtaħleb, Ta’ Baldu and close to the Haġar Qim temples, with a total of 10 poachers being investigated by the police and more than 50 protected birds being seized as corpus delicti.

A video which was uploaded to the CABS Facebook page shows the poachers caught in the act, “some of them panicking when realising that their illegal activity was being recorded.”

The footage also documents how police officers had to break down the door of a trapping hide after a poacher locked himself inside in a desperate attempt to hide from the police.

CABS said that although it was expected that some trappers would continue to target protected birds, its members were shocked to see how widespread the problem had become since the government opened the legal season last Saturday.

“Using an intelligence-led approach, we are prioritising the cases we are investigating due to the sheer volume of recorded incidents,” CABS press officer Axel Hirschfeld said, adding that his organisation had only two teams in the field and did not send any observers to Gozo yet.

CABS concluded that Animal Rights Parliamentary Secretary Clint Camilleri’s appeal to trappers from last week to follow the rules obviously fell on deaf ears, with illegalities being at an all-time high for autumn.

“Mr Camilleri has two options now. He can continue to close his eyes to the reality or meet his obligations and close the season,” Axel Hirschfeld stated.