Posted on September 25, 2020 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
Malta. The “Committee Against Bird Slaughter” (CABS) has released further video evidence of the indiscriminate killing of protected migratory birds in Has-Saptan valley (Birzebbugia).
The footage published on YouTube shows a European Honey Buzzard and a Blue Roller being shot down in the area on Wednesday and Thursday.
Blue Rollers are a type of international nature conservation problem that is experiencing rapid population decline in large parts of its European range and is extremely endangered.
“Our teams deployed in the Birzebbugia area observe and report severe wildlife crimes on a daily basis yet the police needed more than an hour to arrive after our team reported the Roller being killed yesterday”, CABS spokesperson Karl Heinz Kreutzer said adding that this delay gives plenty of ample time for the poachers to hide their illegal prey and escape with impunity.
The NGO said that the primary motivation behind the shooting of protected birds is private collections and illegal taxidermy.
And I mean…At least 50 internationally protected birds died from hunting in Malta in 2019.
In Malta, people shoot pretty much anything that moves in the sky.
Hunting in Malta is pure bird hunting and a popular sport. Allowed in 34 species but exercised on an extremely larger list of birds.
In the case of Malta, the problem is exacerbated because the island is at the heart of the central European migration route. Millions of birds have to go over there – and their killers lurk.
With gigantic trapping facilities of over 5,000 square meters, birds are caught in many places on the island. Gigantic facilities, some of which are several hectares in size, can be found directly on coastal cliffs or on hills in the interior of the island.
An incident reported by “Birdlife” activist Geoffrey Saliba shows how natural hunting is in Malta: “A hunter shot down a marsh harrier – over a schoolyard. Nobody took much notice of it”, he says.
The hunters rarely shoot the birds for pots and pans, but mostly out of pure lust for murder – or to stuff them.
Even legally murdered birds like song thrushes are mostly left to die in the field.
The fact that bird hunting remains possible and legal in the middle of Europe is the surrender of civil society to a criminal elite.
Serbian Animals Voice (SAV) 