CABS launches ´Handle with Care´ campaign

The Germany-based Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) has launched a campaign to ban the trapping and hunting of Golden Plovers in Malta.

In a statement issued to the press this morning, CABS explained that it had called on Prime Minister Joseph Muscat to ban the trapping and hunting of the endangered species and to "contribute to its conservation".

"The population of the Golden Plover in Central Europe is on the brink of extinction. The last remaining population lives in Lower Saxon, Germany, where a total of four pairs bred in 2013," CABS president Heinz Schwarze said.

"Theoretically the whole Central European population can be destroyed with a couple of shots or by using a large clap net," he said.

The European Golden Plover is listed on Annex I of the EU Birds Directive as a bird requiring special conservation measures in order to ensure its survival. In Malta, the bird is a common migrant and winter visitor from October to March.

According to CABS the main threats to the Golden Plover in the EU are identified as the destruction of the breeding habitats and hunting in staging and wintering areas such as France and Malta.

CABS, in its statement, said that it had printed and distributed more than 20,000 protest postcards in Germany, whilst, in order to reinforce its arguments in Malta, CABS has invited birdwatchers in from various parts of Europe to write personally to the Prime Minister.

An online protest form is available on the CABS webpage at www.komitee.de/en.

On Tuesday, this newspaper uploaded a video of a bleeding Golden Plover having jus been shot. The video caused a stir among bird lovers in Malta for the hunter's apparent bragging of having shot the bird, whilst the wounded bird thrashed around at his feet.