Hunters target protected species and violate private property in Gozo - CABS

During the past 48 hours Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) bird guards, together with the Police, closed down illegal trapping sites and recorded the shooting down of protected species as well as numerous contraventions of the afternoon hunting curfew.

According to CABS the number of cases of illegal trapping and shooting of protected species is twice as high as in the same period last year.

The organisation openly challenged the Animal Rights Parliamentary Secretary Roderick Galdes statement, who yesterday claimed that the "assertion of widespread illegalities could not be corroborated so far".

In a statement issued this afternoon, CABS said that on Sunday evening, at about 7.00pm north of Selmun Palace, a team of volunteers managed to film a hunter picking up a freshly shot Little Egret and subsequently patrolling through the area carrying a shotgun.

"Our video shows close ups of the weapon, Little Egret and the face of the poacher. It should be easy for the police to identify him," CABS press officer Axel Hirschfeld.

The statement added that on Monday morning at 6.00am, a Quail trapper was filmed setting his some 20 m long net immediately adjacent to the main road in the Fiddien Valley.

CABS added that on the seeing the bird guards approaching, the trapper calmly packed his equipment together and disappeared before the arrival of the police.

The video material shot by the CABS team, which clearly shows the trapper and his equipment, and has been handed over to the Administrative Law Enforcement (ALE) for analysis and investigation.

Another CABS team discovered a shot Red-footed Falcon grounded in a field above Salina. With the permission of the landowner the bird, a member of a highly endangered species in Europe, was recovered and taken to a veterinary surgeon for treatment. CABS noted that the falcon was being cared for until it is fit for release into the wild.

However, a Common Kestrel shot before the eyes of a CABS team near Qala, Gozo, in the early morning hours was less lucky, CABS added.

The team who were distracted by the presence of aggressive hunters attempting to get them to leave only managed to see the bird being shot and its fall to the ground. The identity of the shooter or the whereabouts of the dead bird remain unknown.

On Monday afternoon, a CABS team patrolling a piece of woodland east of Mellieha, discovered a mist net and a cage trap with more than 20 freshly caught Turtle Doves. The police seized the net and have begun proceedings against unknown persons.

CABS said that today, its volunteers witnessed hunters near Imtahleb shooting at a Montagu's Harrier that finally fell to earth.

It pointed out that ALE officers managed to secure the rare bird, which was still alive and the bird is also receiving veterinary treatment and will hopefully be released at the end of the hunting season.

Another incident, which took place this morning, close to Salina, saw unsuccessfully CABS attempt to recover a Little Egret with gunshot wounds. The bird, which is still present near the Bird Park, remains under observation from a CABS team.

"In the past 48 hours our volunteers have registered nine severe contraventions of the law by hunters. The fact that we can only monitor a small part of the islands at any one time means that many more environmental crimes are almost certainly being perpetrated" Hirschfeld said.

Meanwhile, CABS said that "operations by conservationists on the Ta' Cenc plateau set the cat among the pigeons," this morning in Gozo.

It said that four teams consisting of volunteers from CABS and the German Foundation Pro Biodiversity, with the authorisation of the owner of the Ta' Cenc Hotel & Spa, seven hunters  were evicted from the private property that, despite signs clearly banning hunting and trapping, were illegally hunting there.

CABS said the operation was sparked off by countless complaints from tourists, who were waked daily by volleys of gunfire and falling lead shot on their daily walks in the otherwise pristine countryside of the plateau.

"This form of cooperation between a private landowner and an NGO is exemplary and extremely welcome," CABS board member David Conlin said.

"To say the hunters were surprised is an understatement; but they will have to get used to the fact that arbitrary appropriation of private or public or private land to the detriment of the rest of the public is a thing of the past" Conlin added.

The action was supported throughout by the Gozo police, whose intervention was happily not required on this occasion.