Bail granted for man charged with shooting and killing protected flamingo

A man from Mosta has been charged over the shooting of a flamingo in Naxxar.

Inspector Elliot Magro charged 31-year-old Carl Sant with hunting a protected species of bird and being in possession of the carcass of a protected species that was not obtained in a legal manner, together with a number of breaches of the Conservation of Wild Birds Regulations.

At around 9:00am on November 1, the police received a call from an eyewitness who reported seeing a flamingo being shot in the Qalet Marku area, just outside Naxxar. Officers went to the scene and were handed footage filmed by the person filing the report, which showed the defendant shooting the flamingo, collecting its carcass, and leaving the scene in his car. 

Sant pleaded not guilty.

His defence lawyers, Franco Debono, and Alex Miruzzi are arguing that the footage only showed the flamingo flying and did not show the defendant firing any gunshots. Bail was requested by the defence, meeting with objections from the prosecution on the grounds of the nature of the crime, with the prosecution also submitting that flamingoes are not only a protected species in Malta.

Magistrate Marseanne Farrugia upheld the request for bail, secured by a relative of Sant’s providing a €10,000 guarantee, ordering the defendant to sign a bail book twice a week.