General Chat

British Sovereign Base - in Cyprus. Dhekelia is the base. Was horrified to hear of this and how is it allowed to happen? Apparently thousands of song birds including robins are being killed to make a favourite dish of the Cypriots.

I shall be writing to complain to MP, wonder about the Minister of Defence?

Chris, Happy New Year, please tell us more. This seems to ring a bell with me. I have, perhaps read an article in a Sunday supplement the other week.
Julia in Derbyshire

It was on teletext a few days ago and it kept popping in and out of my head with all the to-do re son, and I just recalled it and will write to someone/somewhere. The text actually said hundreds of thousands and named the dish. But in spite of having lived there and holidayed there never came across such a dish.

I just googled 'cypriot recipe for song birds' and up it came. Very interesting reading and this site is saying millions of birds!

Chris, if the supplement had not gone out with the blue bag, I would have fished it out and had a re-read. I seem to remember there was a picture of these poor bids dead, packed in a jar for sale, complete with beeks,eyes and wings. Nuff to put you off.
Take Care
Julia in Derbyshire

Am glad I did not see the supplement but wonder how many bird lovers are not aware of this. I suppose I should have knowing the predictament of wild birds on Malta.

I haven't seen the recent reports, but I remember that when we lived there sticky sticks were sold for the purpose in the market.
These were coated with a substance that caused the birds to be trapped when they landed on them.
Horrible practice.

Gwyn

According to the websites they are smuggling in special nets. What I find horrific is that this is being practised on a sovereign base. Why?

Had not heard of it in Cyprus, how horrible.

The Sovereign base covers a wide area. Not all will be as we understand a British military base to be. Much will be areas of open country, where locals live and work.
Perhaps this is even more wide-spread, but the Sovereign base traps are the ones which have been detected.

I hope they can further any efforts to wipe out this terrible custom.

Gwyn

They are trying to stop this in Malta, it might already be illegal now. My friend's then husband did it one year when we were there and went out to the countryside with him, I made him let the birds he caught go free. It's just something they do there just as our people used to do certain things that are now banned but it's so cruel. The birds were kept as pets most of the time in small cages on balconies - I hated seeing them.

Lizx

This is disgusting. We along with many others try to feed and nurture the birds in our gardens. However, there are those that still eat birds in this country, for instance, pigeons, pheasants, partridges, and others . Being game birds makes no difference.

Liz a lot of Maltese keep the birds in cellars. Our one and only first visit was about 20 years ago in November when on our first morning we were wakened by gunfire. My first thought was that we were invaded by someone or other. OH went on balcony and then with binoculars noticed that across the bay directly opposite us in the hills were bursts of fire. This went on for two hours. When we queried our Cook rep at the morning briefing, she was embarrassed and admitted that they shot everything in sight including butterflies! This occurred every morning of our 10 days whilst I also had to put up with OH ranting what he could do if he had a rifle! We only ever saw one bird, a seagull, as we walked on the beach about 5pm and that was being shot at but they missed.

At home and researching a bit more, I discovered that the Malta lay on the migratory path of a lot of birds and were guilty of both shooting protected species and catching them live. The Maltese government were helpless. Then again at an family funeral, I met a cousin who was living in Malta and married to a policeman. He told me that in the interim a sanctuary had been set up and shooting prohibited yet whilst very high government officials were visiting one day, shooting was heard in the vicinity. Everytime I hear the word Malta I think of a beautiful but quiet island devoid of bird song.

Chris, I have a friend who is a Policewoman in Malta, and her daughter is too, and my son's grandfather who he never knew, was also a Policeman.

I am always disappointed at the way the Maltese are towards their pets, cats and dogs etc, they have no idea how to look after them properly yet with all the British influence years ago you would have thought some of our ways would have rubbed off?

You are right, there aren't many birds to be heard on Malta except those in cages, maybe they should learn to do a detour to be safe. I think many European countries have no idea of the right way to treat all creatures great and small.

Even cows were kept underground on Malta, partly to keep cool I was told but it seemed so sad to me for them never to be out in the air and eat what grass would grow.

There are more Maltese people trying to enforce rules about shooting the birds now I think. Maybe one day they will be ok.

Lizx

When I lived in Malta about 50 years ago, my dad was in the Services, but we didn't live in service accommodation.
I had 2 baby guinea pigs in a hutch outside.
Once they grew up, they disappeared. Apparently, the son of the neighbouring farmer stole them - then came round to tell us how tasty they'd been!!

Seems to me one of the best protests people could make would be to boycott Malta for their holidays. Is there no animal welfare there? There is no excuse for this wholesale slaughter.

Anyone who wants to know more should look at the R.S.P.B site.
Last autum on Cyprus 1.4 million song birds were illegally killed.
Type in:-
rspb.org.uk
and point on the top line section, "our work" and then on the drop down list, "casework".
There is a petition you can sign. The RSPB has been trying for years to stop this slaughter, which is against E.U laws. Many thousands of these birds either have flown from or are flying to Britian. These are "our" birds being killed.
David.

Jean at that time upon my return I wrote to papers and suggested we hit them where it hurts - the tourist industry and my letters were printed and the local radio picked it up and asked to interview me which I did in order to highlight this.

David - your last sentence is what I was trying to put forward and the protected birds as well. Will sign the petition.

I also wrote to several highups in Maltese government and to their national paper but surprise - never heard anything.

Three more signatures on petition and lobbying friends for more!

I am afraid the care of animals and birds in other countries are different to our ways, and so it's very hard to change things.

In Greece for example, we always saw cats scrounging food from tourists and in one place a shopkeeper ( a British lady) told us that lots of the stray cats get poisoned in winter time to keep numbers down, but they let the tourists make a fuss of them and feed them during summer. Many of the cats we saw looked diseased and scrawny. Some people on Corfu for instance are trying to get round and neuter the cats so they don't keep having more and more kittens.
It's awful but to them it's normal.

Lizx