David Briffa, a committee member of the Federation for Hunting and Conservation (FKNK), is expected to be charged in court, after he was caught red handed by the police while he was trapping finches when the trapping season for ‘research’ had not yet opened.
The police found Briffa in his trapping site close to the airport after receiving video evidence of him setting up his nets. He was found in possession of several finches including Hawfinches, which have been confiscated, along with the nets he was using. The police also confiscated an electronic bird caller.
This is not the first time that Briffa was charged in court. In 2010, Briffa, a prominent FKNK activist involved in the running of Miżieb, was fined €100 for attempting to use force and swearing in public during an argument with a German CABS bird guard Alex Hirschfeld.
The incident happened when volunteers from the Committee Against Bird Slaughter were searching the Miżieb woodland and found the remains of over 80 dead birds, some of which were freshly shot. The search was conducted on the anniversary of the find of over 200 dead protected birds in the woodland the previous year.
During the search the CABS volunteers were approached by Briffa who shouted insults and obscenities at them. Briffa then approached Hirschfeld and hit him on the face. The incident was caught on film by CABS volunteers and a TV crew producing a documentary for the Bayerischer Rundfunk TV station. Briffa was cleared of hitting Hirschfeld, even though the incident was caught on video.
In March 2007, Briffa had been charged with threatening (Minister) Julia Farrugia, then a journalist with Super 1 TV, during an FKNK demonstration in Valletta. He was acquitted of the charge after Farrugia and two other witnesses for the prosecution did not turn up to testify. The appeal court confirmed the decision after noting the police had failed to exhibit copies of the summons proving that the witnesses had been asked to appear in court.
neanderthals protected by the political class.
Even troglodytes were nicer towards birds!
But they were not interested in bird-migration as well as other scientific, educational research as the FKNK are, were they?
Probably they did not even have the necessary specialized equipment for it, did not have a bullying fraternity to belong to and, above all, they did not have a political party eagerly hankering after their vote!
Hnizrijiet biss
Whilst abroad for several weeks I had the opportunity to get close to nature. Some birds became so confident of our presence, that they would walk up to us – simply because they were curious. I used to wonder how many of them flew South and chose Malta as their ULTIMATE resting place….
Regarding the subject of “hunting?”, today the times published an article which says that hinting is now more acceptable to the maltese. Let me state that I do not believe this statement. Statistics can be manipulated according to what the compiler wishes or needs to show. In this case the compiler is known to tow the labour party line. Consequently, I believe that Mr marmara, the compiler, has to “prove” what the labour party says. This exercise first had the answer and later the numbers were manipulated to come up with the “aimed” right answers.