Caged. Uncaged

A tall pile of squashed gabjetti. Gabjetti are tiny cages used to contain decoy songbirds that trappers use to lure wild birds to their infernal clapnets. Several trappers caught by the police catching birds illegally had their gear confiscated. The decoy birds were passed to BirdLife Malta to be checked for health, and then ringed and released, like the lucky Hawfinch pictured below.

This sad pile of cages – here awaiting transfer to the recycling heap – is testament to humanity’s irrepressible urge to trap and imprison wildlife, a practice that should long have been consigned to history.