Malta – 20. 10. 2026

Malta allows bird trapping despite ECJ ruling

20.10.2026

Although Malta has already been found guilty twice by the European Court of Justice for finch trapping, from today thousands of bird trappers are once again permitted to use nets to hunt goldfinches, chaffinches, linnets, hawfinches and siskins. As the government claims, this has nothing to do with research, but serves to catch as many birds as possible illegally for the black market. Even in the weeks leading up to the official opening, our teams documented numerous cases of illegal bird trapping and caught eight poachers red-handed. The police, whom we alerted, seized nine snap-net setups, one set net and a 180-square-metre ground net used for catching quails. Thirty-nine live birds were seized and later released.

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