Hi °C | Lo °C On a recent trip to Malta, I was shocked to see the hundreds of stone hides used by local hunters to shoot migratory birds on their journey to and from Africa.
Nothing is safe - swallows, swifts, honey buzzards, turtle doves, to name a few. They are all fair game.
Gunshots could be heard everywhere we went on the island. At one 'protected' site, where there is a steep decline in rare shearwaters, I picked up six spent shotgun cartridges in a 30-metre stretch.
How glad I was when, on my return to Ireland, one of the first sights to greet me was a flock of crows.
Anyone thinking of Malta as a holiday destination might want to reconsider because of this senseless slaughter. I wish I had.
ADRIENNE KENNEDY (MRS)
Killaloo, Co Londonderry
