Industrial-scale hunting in Tunisia 'is currently legal'

08/02/2018

A recent Facebook post by the Lebanese Hunting Club, dated 10 January but subsequently erased, used horrifying images to advertise hunting trips in Tunisia. However, while they shocked the internet, the carnage they depict is currently legal in the country.

Widely shared by conservation organisations and activists, the graphic invitation for tourists to slaughter excessive numbers of birds in Tunisia provoked wholesale indignation and disgust, who are calling on the country's authorities to eradicate these barbaric but apparently lawful practices.

Tourist hunters in Tunisia are permitted to kill Wild Boar, Golden Jackals, Foxes, mongooses and Genets as well as numerous bird species. To do so, they need only apply to a Tunisian travel agency to organise a hunting trip. They are then provided with a hunting licence (valid for seven days and renewable) and a specialised guide. Depending on the game they target, hunters may also pay a fee to the Tunisian state, which can range from 1,000-2,000 dinars (€ 336-672) per hunter, depending on the time and duration of the trip. Each hunter is also allowed to bring 350 rounds of ammunition.

No quota is set for the killing of thrushes or Common Starlings. In fact, this is the case for more than 30 bird species in Tunisia which are considered legally huntable. The exceptions to this rule are Barbary Partridge and sandgrouse species – for these, each hunter is limited to six and 10 kills per day respectively.

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Green pigeon in danger of extinction due to hunting

Markus Makur

The Jakarta Post

Flores, NTT | Tue, May 17 2016 | 07:18 am

The widespread hunting of birds in Flores has left many bird species, some endemic to the area, on the verge of extinction. Local bird species are mostly found in the Ndora-Aegela forest, a vital water catchment area and their main habitat. The forest around Ulupulu village, in Nagekeo regency, East Nusa Tenggara, is a vital habitat and requires protection. Among others, the green pigeon, locally known as punai, has long been considered a favored catch among local residents for the dual purpose of consumption and trade. Locals also poach eagles and crows.

On March 14, Samuel Rabenak, of the Burung Indonesia conservation group, visited the area and reported that several Flores pigeon species were at risk of extinction.

“Burung Indonesia members are conducting a study in the forest for the purpose of environmental protection and public awareness. Residents must not poach birds in the forest,” Rabenak told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Nagekeo regent Elias Djo said the local administration had prohibited citizens from hunting birds. The Ndora-Aegela is a protected forest and residents are prohibited from hunting in the region, he said.

“Bird hunting is prohibited in the forest. I’ve forwarded the information to the Nagekeo Forestry Office to patrol the Ndora-Aegela forested area,” said Elias.

The Natural Resource Conservation Center, located in Flores, said Monday that all wildlife species in conservation areas and protected forests have been listed as protected in order to maintain sustainablilty and balance in the ecosystem. Birds function to pollinate flowers and disperse seeds.

“Ensuring that people are aware that it is important not to hunt is very important, for the sake of sustainability and for the preservation of the forest ecosystem. Birds are vital to human survival. The government continues to inform people to not hunt birds in the forest,” Elias said. 

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Another protected bird confirmed shot

Swift killed close to the Xrobb L-Għaġin Nature Park in Delimara

Staff Reporter

20 April 2016, 3:27pm

On Tuesday afternoon volunteers of the Committee Against Bird Slaughter(CABS) found a dead swift (rudun in Maltese) close to the Xrobb L-Għaġin Nature Park in Delimara.

The bird which is strictly protected was brought to a vet who confirmed that it was killed with a shotgun. An X-ray shows that the cause of death was a lead pellet which penetrated the bird´s belly from below.

The bird which was passed on to the police’s ALE unit this morning is the second protected bird which was found shot during this year´s spring hunting season. 

Last Monday officers of the Administrative Law Enforcement – Malta´s environmental police – found an injured male Marsh Harrier on a countryside lane close to Bidnija. The harrier was also found to have been injured by lead pellets and was brought to a rehab center.

In view of the fact that last year´s spring hunting season was prematurely closed after a hunter shot down a Kestrel CABS called upon the government to stick to its zero tolerance politic and close the season with immediate effect. “If the season will remain open the Prime Minister has to put up with the accusation that he is applying double standards”, CABS General Secretary Alexander Heyd said.

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'Bird hunting' ban affects relations with Arabs: Pak

ANI | Karachi October 18, 2015 Last Updated at 10:59 IST

The Pakistan Government has filed a review petition in the Supreme Court to reconsider its judgment on the ban over hunting a bird named 'houbara bustard' by foreign dignitaries, as it is affecting the country's relation with the Arab states.

According to the Dawn, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the petition pleaded that the matter concerns the foreign relations as falconry has been a significant part of its relations with Middle Eastern countries.

The petition stated that permits to hunt the bird were given only after following a strict procedure, issued by the Foreign Ministry

On August 19, Pakistan's apex court had ordered both federal and provincial governments to deny the grant of licences and permits to hunt the endangered bird.

Falconry is not a sport but has been recognized as a cultural heritage of Arabs by the UNESCO, the petition added.

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Malta referred to EU court over spring bird hunt

Critics say island custom of hunting birds migrating across Mediterranean is cruel because they are killed before they can breed

Agence France-Presse

Thursday 24 September 2015 17.05 BSTLast modified on Friday 25 September 201500.01 BST

The European commission has referred Malta to the EU’s top court over the controversial tradition of hunting birds migrating across the Mediterranean every spring, officials have said.

Malta has been at odds with Brussels for years over the issue. Critics of the practice say it is cruel as birds are killed before they can breed, but supporters defend it as a longstanding custom.

“The European commission is referring Malta to the court of justice of theEuropean Union over its decision to allow finch trapping on its territory as of 2014,” the commission, the executive body of the 28-member EU, said.

The European court of justice found Malta guilty in 2009 of permitting the hunting of birds during their return from Africa to breeding grounds in Europe, before they had a chance to reproduce.

But while spring hunting is outlawed by the EU birds directive, Malta applies yearly for a short period of exemption. Maltese voters also narrowly approved the continuation of the hunts in a referendum in April.

The European commission said the yearly exemptions should be used “judiciously, with small numbers and strict supervision” but added that “these conditions have not been met in this case”.

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Compromise and concessions

Sunday, April 19, 2015, 00:01 by 

Nicholas Crampton, Mundford, Norfolk, England

I have watched the story of Malta’s attempts to solve its bird conservation problems since 2000, and tried to analyse these and offer some ideas to the Maltese government on their resolution in the form of a report in 2012, in which both Birdlife Malta and FKNK (hunters’ lobby) were consulted.

I am fully persuaded on ecological grounds that the idea of recreational hunting in spring is plainly wrong, and that the EU Birds Directive which allows it is thus fundamentally flawed. However, the fact is that it is legally possible and now likely to be a feature of Maltese life for some time, as it seems unlikely that either of the main political parties will make an election pledge to abolish it in the foreseeable future.

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Maltese hunters kill chance of 190,000 chicks each spring

Update: Moira Delia has launched the SHout report on shocking effects of spring hunting, saying that “spring never comes for the hunted.”

According to a report launched today by TV presenter and animal activist Moira Delia and bird enthusiast and BirdLife Malta Trustee Mark Sultana for the Spring Hunting Out Campaign, Maltese hunters kill the chance of 190,000 chicks being born each spring.

Speaking at a press conference in Ghadira Nature Reserve, Moira Delia made a powerful speech about the cruel effects of spring hunting on wild birds. “190,000 eggs are not laid each year because Maltese hunters shoot their parents out of the sky. The lives lost are not just those of the birds killed, but also those stolen from the next generation. This is why spring never comes for the hunted.”

Mark Sultana said that the spring hunting season “acts as a cover for the targeting of rare and protected birds, with over 38 protected species of birds being illegally shot in Malta during the last four spring hunting seasons.” These include blue rock thrush, Malta’s national bird, and pallid harriers, Europe’s rarest bird of prey, he said.

Moira Delia added that “Countless protected birds are shot in Malta each year, and many are just left to die in agony in the countryside.”

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Court bans houbara bustard hunt in Balochistan

QUETTA-

The Balochistan High Court (BHC) issued orders to cancel the allotment of area to Arabs and other foreigners for hunting birds, including the rare houbara bustard in the provice, private media reported on Friday.

The BHC bench, comprising of Justice Jamal Mandokhail and Justice Ejaz Swati, gave the ruling over two petitions which challenged hunting by royals from Gulf Countries in Balochistan, delcaring hunting houbara bustard and other wild birds ‘illegal.’

The bench issued issued to the Wild Life Department, Federal Interior Ministry and Chief Secretary of Balochistan Saifullah Chattha, seeking report over what steps have been taken for protecting the rare birds in Balochistan.

In hunting season, royal families from the Gulf countries head to Balochistan to hunt Houbara Bustard birds who use Balochistan as a transit route while they migrate to warmer climates in central and south Asia.

Royal families from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE and Bahrain are allocated hunting areas in Balochistan every year and are provided with permits and tight security by the authorities.

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Chris Packham: Why I'm fighting to stop the slaughter of Malta's wild birds

The island is the EU's last outpost of licensed spring shooting. The TV naturalist explains why it's time to stop the barbarity

Chris Packham

The Observer, Sunday 4 May 2014

When it comes to life and death I'm probably more stoic than most. But last week I cried in front of more than 20,000 viewers on YouTube. Like all our team, I was close to exhaustion – we'd been on four hours sleep a night for days. I was also clearly depressed by the daily slaughter we had been witness to and the relentless attrition that had been mounting with every dead bird I'd seen blasted from the Maltese skies. But in truth from the moment I reached into the cardboard box that held a shot Montagu's harrier and gently felt its badly broken wing, as soon as I saw the blood of this beautiful and rare raptor on my fingers and looked at the defiance and confusion in its brilliant yellow eyes, it was a predictable reaction.

I like birds, and this was a very special bird. That morning I had been out with a team of observers from BirdLife Malta, patrolling the dry fields of this tiny island where about 10,000 hunters wander and wait to shoot at turtle doves and quail. It's their highly controversial spring hunting season, the only such in the European Union, of which Malta has been a member since 2004.

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Why the Maltese massacre is bad news for UK's threatened bird species

By Western Morning News | Posted: May 02, 2014

By Liam Creedon

A Turtle Dove injured by hunters

Photo of Golden Oriole, who was a victim of illegal hunting.

Photo of Hobby bird, who was a victim of illegal hunting

Cape Turtle Doves

Thousands of migrating birds are being killed at one of Britain’s favourite holiday destinations. We explain why this is not just a disaster for Malta but bad news for some of the UK’s most threatened species

The rocky island of Malta, much-loved tourist destination for British holidaymakers, nestling amid the startling blue Mediterranean Sea, is possibly the worst place in the world to be a bird.

For this small, barren outcrop is a killing ground on an unprecedented scale.

Thousands of birds, some of which may be migrating back to British back gardens, are blasted from the skies each year by the highest concentration of registered hunters in Europe. Even those lucky enough to avoid the guns run the gauntlet of being illegally trapped and harvested in hard-to-see ‘mist nets’ slung between bushes.

Trigger-happy hunters are responsible for this indiscriminate killing spree, during a three-week period in spring, with one of our rarest birds, the Turtle Dove, singled out as a key target. The dove has declined by 95% in the UK since the 1970s and there are real fears it will become extinct as a British breeding bird.

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Hunters fire on Walmart

WESTFIELD, Mass. (The Westfield News) - Walmart shoppers in the store’s Springfield Road parking lot Saturday may have thought they were under attack when a caller advised police that he saw a bird fall from the air and heard pellets land on parked vehicles.

Police report that at 10:07 a.m. Saturday a caller reported that he saw a bird fall and subsequent callers reported that duck hunters were shooting near the store and expended birdshot was falling on vehicles in the store’s parking lot.

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Bird Hunting Rears its Head in Chilika

Even as avian visitors throng Chilika lagoon in thousands, hunting of the migratory birds has reared its ugly head. The wildlife authorities on Sunday detected the first case of poaching and arrested a person from Balipatpur.

The Tangi Range of Chilika Wildlife Division seized a dead Open Bill Stork from Nimai Mandal, a local villager. A snare and net were also recovered from his possession. Balipatpur is located near Bhushandapur where the birds roost in large numbers.

This year, about 1.70 lakh birds have already converged at Chilika. Of them, 1.3 lakh are in the 16-sq km Nalabana Sanctuary. Currently, wigeons are in the majority.

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Malta to remove some of the little protection that birds get

Introducing... The Wild Birds Deregulation Unit

13th August 2013 - BirdLife Malta has reacted to the news that the government is going to push back the autumn hunting afternoon curfew to 7pm by describing the team that has made this decision as Malta's very own "Birds Deregulation Unit".

BirdLife Malta Executive Director Steve Micklewright said, "The media revealed that the government's new Wild Birds Regulation Unit was being staffed by hunting sympathisers last week. This decision clearly shows what happens when you put hunters in charge of bird conservation." 

Licence for the illegal killing of protected birds

Describing the decision as a "licence for the illegal killing of protected birds", Mr Micklewright concluded that, "This decision clearly shows that bird conservation on Malta is not best served by the new Wild Birds Regulation Unit under the Parliamentary Secretary for Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture, Fisheries and Animal Rights."

BirdLife Malta has sent an urgent letter to the Prime Minister asking for his direct intervention. Mr Micklewright added, "In our letter to the Prime Minister we call for bird conservation issues to be dealt with by the Minister for Sustainable Development, the Environment and Climate Change, the decision to remove the curfew only emphasises that these issues are in the wrong hands."

The decision flies in the face of careful evidence placed before the Ornis Committee in July 2013. BirdLife Malta Conservation Manager Nicholas Barbara said, "We provided clear evidence to the Ornis Committee that when the 3pm curfew was not in place during the first week of October when bird of prey migration is still on, we have witnessed many more incidents of shooting at protected species in the afternoons compared to when the curfew was still in place in September. This clearly shows that the 3pm curfew was effective." 

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Rio Grande bird hunting restriction may be lifted

LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) — Jim Bates didn't know he was doing something illegal.

He and many other sportsmen had long hunted along the banks of the Rio Grande, bringing home the dove, quail and waterfowl drawn to the water.

There were "no trespassing" signs on the federal levees nearby, but there was an understanding that no one seemed to mind the sportsmen, bikers, dog walkers and others who enjoyed the federal land, Bates said. Hunting and shooting were technically prohibited, though enforcement was left up to local law enforcement agencies.

"Everyone was under the same impression that, as long as nothing happened, it was OK," Bates said.

http://www.seattlepi.com/news/science/article/Rio-Grande-bird-hunting-restriction-may-be-lifted-4714291.php

Bird hunters 'emptying Afghan skies'

Untold numbers of migratory birds are being caught and killed every year in Afghanistan, helping drive species like the Siberian Crane to the verge of extinction. Hunters say other bird populations are also declining rapidly, raising fears among environmentalists.

Noar Agha loads small stones into the leather pouch attached to his homemade sling shot. "This is like a big transit airport for birds," he says, pointing to a lush valley ringed by snowy Hindu Kush peaks in Parwan province, about 160km (100 miles) from Kabul.

Syed Khel district's wheat fields and orchards offer a perfect resting point for migratory birds.

"Thousands of White-naped Cranes, flamingos, ducks, falcons and sparrows migrate from India and Pakistan when summer temperatures begin to rise there. They make a stopover here before taking off for Russia. That's when we make a move," Mr Agha says.

About a dozen of his grandchildren nod in appreciation. Then a boy perched on a tree top waves a piece of cloth and Mr Agha orders everyone to scatter. Soon a huge flock of sparrows descends on the valley.

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CABS claims 'total anarchy' of bird shooting around Safi

The Germany-based Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) said today that it had filed hunting of protected birds in Safi during the first week of its Operation ‘Honey Buzzard’.

The 'operation' is monitoring bird unting during the open season.

"CABS volunteers have registered to date the shooting down of more than 25 protected birds and have managed to record most of these incidents on film," it said. In addition a freshly-shot Marsh Harrier, a live Hoopoe with gunshot wounds, a badly wounded Grey Heron and 13 dead Bee-eaters were discovered in various locations on Malta and Gozo.

The committee said the hotspot of poaching activity this past week was the area around the international airport. Ten birds of prey and a Grey Heron were shot down or shot at around Safi over the past nine days.

Committee spokesperson Axel Hirschfeld said that 'total anarchy' ruled in Safi. 

"The police are doing their utmost but the use of their normal reactive tactics in the difficult terrain, with a maze of high walls and trees offering ideal concealment for the poachers, is inadequate in terms of law enforcement and prosecution. New proactive tactics, to include a substantial temporary concentration of manpower, are needed if the situation in Safi is to be brought under control”.

Continued:  http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120924/local/cabs-record-shooting-of-protected-birds.438162