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Bloodthirsty seagulls ‘worse than rats’ say terrorised seaside locals
We’ve all been the victim of a sneaky seagull flying down from the sky like lightning and robbing the crepe we’ve just bought from the pancake stall, but for the people of Devon, the issue has gone way beyond a joke.
While many associate the noise of the birds with peaceful memories from the seaside, on a trip to Torquay, Devon Live, discovered that the locals are holding quite the grudge.
Luckily, however, they can’t take out their wrath on the animal as it’s protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.
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In what has become an enormous rivalry, Suzanne Collins has simply had enough of the seagulls that are causing mayhem on her street.
She said: “I don’t like them. They rip rubbish open, and they attack people. They’re just vermin, basically. The rats are probably kinder than the seagulls are.
“It was like a rubbish tip on Tuesday morning in my lane. One of the seagulls was actually dragging this rubbish bag across the road. They’re strong.
“They’re protected, and I just can’t see why. They kill badgers, and every single year they breed and breed, and there are just thousands more born every year.”
She continued: “They cause people a lot of trouble. If you don’t watch your food, they just pinch it out your hand. They’re just horrible. They fight each other as well.”
On the other hand, her good pal, Emma Kerby, has a soft spot for the seaside gulls: “I like them to look at and the sound of them, but they do attack you.
“To be honest, though, when I moved away for five years, I missed the sound of them. I had aeroplanes instead.”
As it turns out, Suzanne has a lot of reasons to be angry with the birds. Not only did one rob her pasty, but another actually deployed a poo on her — nasty stuff.
Visiting the area from Derbyshire for a well-earned holiday, Margaret Baron and Bill Addar quite like looking at the seagulls. But if they ever went anywhere near his sausage, chips and curry sauce, there’d be an almighty price to pay.
He said: “We like seagulls. But if they pinch my chips, then I don’t like them.”
Luckily thanks to Margaret’s watchful eye, they’ve never managed to pull off the heist.
She claimed: “They’ve been eying us up a few times, and I’ve seen them pinch other peoples’ chips but not ours.”
Despite being pesky scavengers, the couple agreed that there’s absolutely no need to hurt them.
Bill asserted: “They’re a bit like pigeons, aren’t they? They’re a bit of a pest, but they’ve got a place on the planet. They should go foraging for their own stuff; it’s too easy to take it off the locals.
“I don’t see any reason at all to kill a bird, even though they might be a nuisance.”
Margaret added: “They have the same right to be on the planet as anything else.”
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