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Conservationists protest Malta bird hunt

Bird lovers are heading to the Mediterranean island of Malta, the Independent reported on Monday, to help end the illegal hunting of birds migrating from Africa to Europe.
The Maltese bird hunt has been outlawed since the island joined the European Union in 2004, the report said, but the government has allowed it to continue in deference to the country’s powerful hunting lobby.
Now BirdLife Malta, the island’s bird protection body, has established a conservation camp of volunteers from across Europe to document the activities of the hunters.
"To shoot birds when they are returning on migration and on the point of reproducing the species is just senseless. It’s hugely destructive," Alistair Gammell, from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, was quoted as saying.
Many bird species that were once resident on the island have been wiped out by the mass slaughter, the report added.