A number of trappers “invaded” the Msida offices of Malta’s largest hunting lobby group.

FKNK issued a statement following the invasion, saying they were “just a fraction of many other trappers who fell victim to discrepancies, sometimes serious, between the list of trapping sites’ coordinates published by the Wild Birds Regulations Unit (WBRU) and the WBRU approved trapping site plans that are at the trapper”.

The discrepancies, with FKNK called anomalies, were leading to trappers having their “birds and other equipment confiscated and what’s worst, they have been prevented from trapping in the peak of the open season due to circumstances in which they had no fault”.

“To add salt to the wound, BirdLife Malta published another list of trapping sites full of errors and on top of which, to add insult to injury, encouraged the public to report any trapping sites that are not on their erroneous list,” FKNK emphasised.

The group said it took stock of the complaints brought in by the trappers who went to its offices on Monday, and is encouraging other trapper members who may have fallen victim in a similar way to approach the FKNK by calling 99474503 as soon as possible, so that the same FKNK can present all the complaints in one dossier to all the necessary and concerned authorities.

In the FKNK’s opinion, “this harsh and totally inappropriate behaviour against the trappers, during the peak of the trapping open season, is nothing more than a direct manoeuvre against trapping and an attempt to undermine the finches’ research program implemented by Government”.