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Help us halt illegal bird killing

Turtle dove shot in Malta

Every spring, thousands of birds make astonishing journeys from their African wintering grounds to nest and breed in northern Europe.

Malta is a vital stepping stone for many of them on this journey, where they stop to rest and feed to build up their strength for the last leg of their journey. Sadly, many never leave the island - instead they are gunned down by Maltese hunters.

While there are law-abiding hunters in Malta, many just don't care. And now, Maltese hunters are waiting for their government to defy European Law once again and allow shooting in spring – despite the EU's conservation law that bans spring hunting.

Worringly, this stance could encourage hunters in other European countries to try to engineer similar situations, which could have terrible consequences for endangered and protected birds throughout the European Community, including, swallows, swifts, nightingales, skylarks, and ospreys.

Please sign our petition to the Maltese Prime Minister Dr Lawrence Gonzi, asking him to take a stand against illegal hunting in all its forms and enforce the law.

'I want him [Dr Lawrence Gonzi] to see nature not as something to be exploited for amusement, but as something to respect and protect for us all.' Tim Stowe, RSPB Director of International Operations

A donation from you today will also help us provide 'hands-on' action to stop illegal hunting and trapping through our work with our partner BirdLife Malta.

What do we hope to achieve?

With your help, we want to stop the ongoing and widespread illegal killing of protected birds in Malta by insisting that the Maltese government increase the resources available to the police in their work against illegal hunting, including the setting up of a dedicated wildlife crime unit that operates all year round.

We also want the government to increase the minimum fines for repeat offenders, and to ensure the cancellation of hunting licenses for repeat offenders at the courts.

Alongside this, we will be continuing to raise awareness of the issue on Malta and internationally, as well as funding education programmes, campaigning, surveillance and evidence collection work.

We recently ensured that the European Commission took action against Malta and as a result of an interim measure issued by the European Court of Justice (ECJ), spring hunting was not allowed in 2008 and 2009.

Please sign the petition and give a gift today to help us halt this senseless, and illegal, killing.