Susanne Müller speaking to the media about the eagle's injuries. X-ray showing shotgun pellets

by Natalino Fenech



The lesser spotted eagle that was found injured by a woman in Birzebbuga last Sunday had been hit by six shotgun pellets, an x-ray taken in Germany shows.

Sigmar, as the eagle was named by the German press, was shown to the German media in a press conference at Berlin yesterday morning, after Air Malta took the injured bird back to Germany.

Axel Hirschfeld, a member of the Committee Against Bird Slaughter, said CABS volunteers picked up the bird from Frankfurt at midnight on Thursday and drove all the way to Berlin, where they arrived yesterday morning.

"The x-ray image showed six pellets, one of them in the leg and one in a critical part of the upper body. The exact position of the pellets and diagnosis by Kirsten Müller will follow over the next days. The left leg is broken in two places, but as no joints are affected it should heal properly," he said.

"There was a strong reaction from the German media present. We recounted experiences of what we saw during out camp in Malta. We spoke about the measures the government was trying to take and about the illegal hunting incidents we saw.

"You could tell that a lot of illegal hunting is still taking place both because of the number of shots one hears in the morning after seeing birds of prey coming out of their roosts and by the hostile reaction of hunters in general to anyone who is not a hunter. If hunters are not doing anything wrong, they should not fear being watched," he said.

"We showed the footage of another eagle, a booted eagle we filmed and which was shot near Dwejra in Malta. We also saw other birds of prey being shot, in addition to mapping over 150 illegal bird callers in just a few hours of work on three nights," Mr Hirschfeld said

"We told the press that, from what we saw, it is very clear there are many hunters breaking the law,' he said.

Many journalists were very interested in the fact that it was Air Malta that offered to transport the bird back home, he noted.

The eagle was one of 15 saved through an EU life project costing €1 million in the state of Brandenburg.