It’s close to 6pm. A flock of 14 Honey Buzzards and 12 Marsh Harriers are circling over Buskett, looking for a place to roost for the night. Within half an hour, they are all dead.
A total of 53 protected birds of prey were killed on that day alone at Buskett. The police were nowhere to be seen. Whenever there was a police raid at Buskett, you’d know in advance. There would be no hunters around – all pre-warned.
This is what the 1980s was like. No one was ever taken to court over hunting-related offences. For a long time, hunters’ associations were in denial. Hunters would shoot at practically anything that flew. Taxidermy became widespread.
In 1992, I wrote the book Fatal Flight, the Maltese Obsession with Killing Birds, laying the problem bare. In his endorsement of the book, the President of the Malta Ornithological Society wrote: “There is no other place where the shooting and trapping of birds is so intensive and extensive…”
Fast forward 30 years from the incident. With looming EU membership, Malta had to act. Attitudes started to change very gradually. Malta retained spring hunting and there was a day when we had a strong migration of Honey Buzzards. There was carnage and Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi decided to close the hunting season to discipline hunters.
With the change in government, some hunters started slipping back to bad old habits. Prime Minister Joseph Muscat first closed the autumn hunting season over a series of offences and the following spring he closed it again after just three offences. He also raised the penalties on hunting infringements.
Hunters were brought in line practically overnight. The vast majority of hunters now abide by the law. Some have become convinced they should change their ways. Others are afraid of the penalties – a fine of up to €5,000 for shooting a protected bird is no joke. Some were even jailed over a protected bird.
In spite of all this, a few still shoot. They may feel above the law. Some do it to spite, to get back at bird watchers. Where rare birds are involved, a few still take a risk if they think they can get away with it. That’s why it’s very important to tag all stuffed bird collections to make it difficult to launder shot protected birds.
Working with many hunters who are themselves agents of positive change is the way forward
But putting everything into the equation, while every case of illegal hunting is a case too many, should one really call on the government to close the season because there was an average of one reported illegality a day?
The first illegal hunting incidents we had this year took place in August. The season was still closed. Closing the season would mean that law-abiding hunters, the ones likely to pass on information about poachers, would stay at home. Poachers would have a field day.
I would not say I can live with the amount of illegal hunting going on. But what is happening now pales into insignificance compared to what used to happen a mere five years ago. In report for Birdlife International last year, Birdlife Malta estimated that over 300,000 birds were still being killed or trapped illegally here. That report was a gross exaggeration and full of inaccuracies, but still there is a huge gap between 300,000 and two or three dozen cases.
The last part of the battle is always the hardest. We need to weed out those who are causing untold harm by their actions. We need a stronger presence of police and people like CABS to deter and nab cases of illegal hunting.
We need hunters to realise that if they do not pass on information or report to the police, they are just encouraging law breakers to continue to tarnish everybody. Many tell me they do not report because they fear the government will close the season again. Perhaps instead of closing the season, one should declare an area where illegal hunting took place as a protected area for some time unless the case is solved.
We need to keep encouraging hunters to take a camera with them to shoot the birds they can’t shoot with their guns. Some are already very good at it and have realised that if they shot down a Honey Buzzard they would have to hide it but they could post a picture online and boast about it.
The last part of the battle is a war of wits. We have to outsmart those who are causing this trouble for themselves and for all of us. Everything in life revolves about education, opportunities and conditioning. The way we were brought up determines what we do, unless we are induced to act differently along the way. We need tangible projects that give these people an opportunity to be with birds in a different way.
Working with many hunters who are themselves agents of positive change is the way forward, not lumping them all in the same basket and looking down at them as if they were the scum of the earth.
Natalino Fenech is an ornithologist who has been involved in conservation work for nearly 40 years.