Saudi Gazette report Every year starting early August migratory birds can be seen in the Kingdom's skies until mid-September. In recent years, the Illegal hunting of these migratory birds has increased to alarming levels. Unable to put an end to the phenomenon and hold hunters accountable for their actions, the Saudi Wildlife Authority (SWA) is often left embarrassed before global organizations that ask it to do more to stop the illegal hunting of migratory birds, Al-Riyadh daily reported. Hunting birds is a centuries-old hobby in the Arabian Peninsula but this hobby has turned into a huge problem for the concerned authorities due to the number of birds being killed every year. While it is true that in the past Arabs did not have the modern hunting rifles that are available today, they did have ethics and would only kill birds they would eat. If a migratory bird fell from the sky because of fatigue or if it entered a house searching for water, they would set it free. Naif Al-Sebaee, an expert hunter, said greedy merchants whose numbers have increased over the past few years have spoiled the hobby of bird hunting. He said they own large farms that attract migratory birds and they also have huge hunting nets to catch hundreds of birds at a time. “Some of them rent the farms for two months and pay as much as SR70,000. With their large nets, they catch as many as 10,000 birds a day. A small bird is sold for SR4 while bigger ones go for SR40. They can earn from SR50,000 to SR60,000 a day in sales. It's easy money for them. The only expense they incur is the wages they pay to workers who are hired to free the birds from the net, slaughter them and store them in refrigerators,” Al-Sebaee explained. Small birds that are caught in such nets typically die in 30-40 minutes either from hunger, thirst or fatigue. There is no way workers can free all birds caught within such a brief period, which means that the majority of the birds die of fatigue as they struggle to free themselves from the nets. “The sad thing is that we regularly see ads for hunting of migratory birds in the media and social media networks such as the Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat,” he said. Abdulrahman Al-Rashid, a farm owner, said many hunters are amateurs who do not understand the ethics of the hobby. “They use advanced weaponry to kill as many birds as possible in one shot. It is a cruel way to kill a bird that only weighs 200 grams,” he said.
