Data on autumn trapping still being processed

According to the parliamentary secretariat for animal rights, data relating to the songbirds trapped during last year’s autumn trapping season was still being processed and analysed.

“Information related to the trapping of songbirds is still being processed and analysed together with other details. The information will be tabled in parliament once it has been compiled,” the office of parliamentary secretary Roderick Galdes said.

The question was raised by Nationalist MP Charlo Bonnici over the season that closed in December.

In reply to other questions raised by the same MP, the government said that 12,660 Carnet de Chasse were collected by the Wild Birds Regulation Unit and MEPA in 2010, followed by 13,511 booklets in 2011, 13,209 booklets in 2012 and 13,486 in 2013.

The trapping season reopened last year following a decision by the Ornis Committee.

According to media reports, a total of 26,850 birds could be captured live over two months, based on an analysis by the Wild Birds Regulation Unit, which amended a set of proposals submitted by the hunters’ federation, FKNK.

The Maltese government last opened a trapping season in September 2012, applying a derogation from the EU ban on trapping of golden plover and song thrush. The rules set seasonal bag limits at 5,000 song thrush and 1,150 golden plover, and the season ran for 83 days between October 2012 and January 2013.

Trapping is banned in the EU and Malta has already received two formal warnings from the European Commission, before the possibility of being taken to the European Court of Justice.

Upon EU accession, Malta was granted a 5-year grace period in which to phase out the practice of finch trapping after it joined the EU, however Malta has persisted in opening an autumn trapping season every year since 2009, which has served as a loophole to allow illegal trapping of finches and other protected species to continue.

The authorities had also failed to establish a captive breeding system that should have determined the number of captured wild birds required to sustain genetic diversity, by 2007

Under EU and national law, trapping can only be allowed under strict conditions through a limited derogation from the Birds Directive.