The head of Malta’s hunting federation has insisted that a phone system used to report bird catches is working, despite Times of Malta trying and failing to access it.

FKNK president Lucas Micallef said that while reporting of catches might not be “immediate” it nevertheless happened.

He acknowledged some problems with an iOS version of the reporting application but said an Android version worked perfectly and that hunters could also call the Wild Birds Regulation Unit to report catches over the phone.

Times of Malta tried to call the WBRU number on Friday afternoon and again on Saturday morning. Nobody answered the phone.

Hunters are obliged to declare any shot turtle-doves to the WBRU. A limit of 1,500 birds is currently in place for over 8,000 licensed hunters. If the hunting bag limit is reached before April 30, the season will be closed.

Anti-hunting NGO Birdlife Malta first flagged concerns about the reporting system on Friday, noting how several hunters had claimed on Facebook that they were unable to register their catches.

FKNK president Lucas Micallef hit back at those who complained about the reporting system's functionality online

Birdlife has described the reporting system as a "farce" and said it has no faith in it accurately reflecting catches made by hunters.

But Micallef said those claims were “nonsense” and that any genuine complaints should be directed to the WBRU itself, rather than posted on Facebook.

“It is clear that the primary effort of those comments was not to complain, it is obvious what they are trying to do with just a few days left in the season,” he said. 

“How can, from these comments about the system not working, reach the conclusion that the bag limit has been reached without evidence? Are they gods? How on earth can they know?”

“You cannot just say something without any evidence to back it up. It’s really amateur of them to keep reporting us to the EU just to win an argument. You cannot keep doing things to harm people just because you don’t agree with them, it is abuse of a minority group.”