by Daphne Caruana Galizia

And it's been shot. The lesser-spotted eagle who survived a shooting at Birzebbuga has raised the stakes in this game and has put hunters even further beyond the pale. The indifference that the mass of the population once felt towards birds and bird-shooters has now gone for good. Nor do most distinguish between legal and illegal hunting, because they hate the lot. Bird-shooting, whether it's the legal shooting of a turtle dove or the illegal shooting of an eagle, is disruptive and damaging.

The eagle made the news because it is one of those reared from infancy at huge expense in a project run by the Brandenburg Environment Ministry in Germany, funded by German taxpayers and by EU funds. It has been returned to Brandenburg, where this incident has caused uproar. The environment minister there, Dietmar Woidke, is pressing the German federal government to protest officially to its Maltese counterpart. There are only 30 breeding pairs of the lesser-spotted eagle in Brandenburg, and 115 pairs in the whole of Germany. Mr Woidke said in Potsdam last week: "Uncontrolled bird-hunting in Malta is countering our efforts to protect the species".

That he should be so furious is understandable. Brandenburg has spent a million euros on conservation efforts, with chicks being hand-reared and then released into the wild - only to be shot at in Malta. The one shot in Birzebbuga had been hand-reared last July; all that care, expense and attention risked in a flight over Malta.

To the more primitive elements of Maltese society, a bird is a bird is a bird. There's no difference to them between the pigeons on their roof and a rare eagle. If it's flying about in the air, then it's 'free' and they have a right to shoot it. It's the kind of mentality people had a century ago, which is why so many species were wiped out through indiscriminate shooting. They don't seem to understand that, far from being the property of no one, birds are public property - and not just Maltese public property, either. Because they don't understand this, they cannot grasp the root of the growing general resentment against them. They are killing - stealing - birds that 'belong' to us all.

A spokesman for the British-based International Animal Rescue told The Daily Telegraph: "Numerous migrant birds of prey have been killed or injured (in Malta) since the season opened. The range of breaches of the law observed by our eight teams (in Malta) included shots fired after the afternoon curfew at 1500 hours, the use of banned electronic lure devices and the deliberate shooting at migrating birds of prey by several hunters at a time." Heinze Schwarze, who is president of the Committee Against Bird Slaughter in Germany told journalists that he was amazed at how many hunters in Malta deliberately and blatantly broke the law. "It demonstrates a complete disrespect for the rule of law and a high level of criminal energy," he said.

The stakes have been ratcheted higher still by the shooting two days ago in Mellieha of ranger Ray Vella. He was at Mizieb, the park where shooting is banned and where people just love to rip up trees and set fire to them, when he heard a shot and was hit in the face by pellets. He looked up and saw a man with a rifle running away. Vella began to yell at him, but the man kept running, turning round only to shout out insults and abuse against the ranger and "your organisation". Yes, that is what we have come to. Now it's not just protected bird species which are being illegally shot at, but also park rangers.

It was only a matter of time. Anti-bird-shooting activists have been at the receiving end of threats and violence over the years, and there have been several episodes of vandalism which have been linked to hunters. Press photographers were beaten and had their camera equipment stolen at a protest march by hunters some months ago.

It will get worse before it gets better. People depend on the police to clamp down and put the fear of the law into these people. Yet too often, the police are let down by the law courts, where the punishment doesn't fit the crime, even if the person is found guilty in the first place, which is not often.

A park ranger has been shot at, and the man who did it obviously had the confidence that goes with feelings of impunity. They'll never catch me, he probably tells himself, and even if they do, they can never prove it because Ray Vella will never recognise me. That's the dreadful thing about the situation we are in, with violence committed against those who stand up for what is right: the perpetrators get away with it time and time again. Now they are not even doing it in darkness, as they did when they left dead birds of prey and cow dung at a birdwatchers' observation point in Dwejra. Vella was shot at in broad daylight.