Bird bloodbath
Scots, who spend huge sums of money on nuts and seeds to feed wild birds in their gardens, will be horrified to know tens of thousands of our most familiar migratory birds are being trapped and massacred every spring in Malta.
These birds, including swifts, swallows, house martins and cuckoos, migrate from Scotland to North Africa every autumn and stop off to rest in Malta during their long return journey to our shores. But on Malta, more than 12,000 hunters are lying in wait, ready to gun them down for sport.
Action by the European Commission is needed to ensure EU laws are upheld against spring hunts. Unless we protect migration routes, efforts to protect bird life in Scotland will be in vain. This attack on our biodiversity can't go on.
STRUAN STEVENSON MEP
European Parliament
Brussels