BirdLife Malta receiving non-stop reports of illegal hunting

Illegal hunting casualties are being encountered on a daily basis, according to BirdLife Malta.

The NGO said that they received non-stop calls on Sunday reporting illegal hunting, with Radio and TV personality Trudy Kerr reaching out to BirdLife Malta after finding a Lesser Kestrel in the countryside.

Lesser Kestrel found in Mtarfa

This was collected by police who took the bird to the vets confirming it had suffered shotgun injuries.

BirdLife Malta were later informed of a Black Kite with gunshot injuries which was also recovered by police from the south of Malta.

Earlier on Sunday, BirdLife Malta had also retrieved a Pallid Harrier from Gozo which was also confirmed as an illegal hunting casualty, together with two Common Kestrels, also with gunshot injuries.

Pallid Harrier found in Gozo

On Sunday evening, BirdLife Malta received reports of seven shot Marsh Harriers in a popular roosting area for harriers migrating over Malta. The Environmental Protection Unit (EPU) of the Malta Police Force were called in to investigate the discovery. 

According to BirdLife Malta, 58 injured birds reached the government vet with gunshot injuries since the beginning of the year. This is 21 more than what was seen this time in 2020.

“This remains the tip of the iceberg with hundreds if not thousands of protected birds being shot down in Malta and Gozo every year," BirdLife Malta CEO Mark Sultana said. 

"We continue to ask the Maltese Government to take this issue seriously even if we know that our pleas have fallen on deaf ears so far. To the contrary, the European Commission is listening and is understanding the gravity of the situation. We are reporting everything to the Commission and asking it to intervene with all its powers to stop this massacre of birds in our islands.”