Hunter has licence permanently revoked, fined €5,000 for shooting protected bird

A man has had his hunting license permanently revoked, his hunting-rifle confiscated and was fined €5,000 after being found guilty of shooting and killing a protected bird last week.

Video footage taken by conservation group BirdLife Malta, that witnessed the hunter shooting down the stone curlew on Thursday, showed the hunter retrieving the shot bird at Ahrax, limits of Mellieha at around 7:30am, as well as him shooting at a second bird, which he missed.

The stone curlew is listed under Schedule 1 of the Conservation of Wild Birds Regulations and is afforded the highest protection by the law.

The footage led to police officers from the Administrative Law Enforcement (ALE) unit to identify and press charges against 33-year-old Anthony Galea, of Mosta.

Galea was charged with attempting to shoot down two protected birds of the same species, shooting one down and failing to inform the authorities as required by law, trying to keep the protected bird that was shot down and hunting a bird that is not on the approved list.

Magistrate Joe Mifsud, presiding over the case, remarked that the courts have no objection to hunters responsibly enjoying their right to hunt, but would not tolerate criminal actions.

While noting that the majority of hunters practice their sport “seriously and responsibly”, magistrate Mifsud lamented on the few who are not keeping in line with the law, to the detriment of those who are.

According to BirdLife Malta, the stone curlew was the 13th shot, protected bird out of a total of 15 to be recovered during this spring hunting season, which closed on Friday.

Since the closing of the season, five more protected birds have been shot, BirdLife Malta said, including two stone curlews (one of which was retrieved by a member of the public in Pembroke), a marsh harrier found by a group of hikers at Miġra l-Ferħa, a hoopoe found by a family who was walking in Xewkija, Gozo, and a dying turtle dove found by a Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) team in Safi.

Wild Birds Regulation Unit head Sergei Golovkin said that this year’s season was rather poor in terms of spring migration, with only 130 quails shot. According to BirdLife Malta, this translates to 10% of the birds known to have been shot this spring season being illegally targeted protected birds.

In his ruling, magistrate Mifsud said he intended to make an example out of the accused that the penalty acts as a strong deterrent.

“This is not a case of the accused being unaware of the consequences of his actions. The court is convinced that there are still others who believe that when breaking the law there is a chance of not being caught, or should they be caught there is a chance that they would not be found guilty, or in the case of guilt the penalty would not be so bad,” he said.

“Nature belongs to everybody...this case should serve as a warning to all. All in all, it should serve the responsible hunters and help them to collaborate with the police in order to catch more irresponsible hunters, like what happened in this case.”

The court ordered the man to have his hunting licence permanently revoked and his hunting-rifle confiscated, and to pay a fine to the tune of €5,000.

Inspector Colin Sheldon prosecuted.

Lawyer Alfred Abela represented the accused.