Busy days for CABS and the police as they chase the hunters

CABS, the Bonn-based Committee Against Bird Slaughter said today that its members in Malta noted more than 330 contraventions of hunting regulations  and, in cooperation with the police in Malta and Gozo police, five illegal trapping sites have been closed down. In addition, acting on information provided by CABS teams, five live protected birds, including a strictly protected Nightjar and several waders, six shot Marsh Harriers, a dead Cuckoo as well as two illegally operated electronic Quail decoy devices were seized by the police. The committee said that yesterday morning its volunteers located two active clap nets between Xaghra and Ramla (Gozo). These were immediately reported to the police for confiscation. At about the same time a CABS team in Imtahleb found a 10-metre long vertically strung trapping net (mist net) in which a bird was frantically struggling to set itself free. The police were also called to this case but took 45 minutes to arrive at the scene. The offenders used this delay to remove the mist net so that confiscation was not possible. Another trapper with an active mist net in the valley (Wied ir-Rum) below Ta´ Baldu was not so fortunate. The police called...