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Gunmen shooting dead seagulls in their dozens (From The Argus)
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Gunmen shooting dead seagulls in their dozens
2:10pm Friday 14th May 2010
Seagulls across Sussex are being shot and killed in their dozens.
Bird protection groups have offered a £5,000 reward to catch the gunmen responsible for the deaths of up to 50 gulls in a string of attacks across the county in the last fortnight.
The birds are being cruelly shot down from rooftops but in some cases the maimed birds are not dying instantly but are plummeting from rooftops and then dying slow, painful deaths.
The National Seagull Rescue and Protection (NSRP) campaign has had to be called out to care for many of the injured birds.
In the last week the charity has been called in to care for two birds attacked in Hove and another one Brighton, one in Seaford, plus nine in Eastbourne.
Investigators believe the same people are repeatedly shooting at birds. Residents in the Hazlewood Avenue area of Eastbourne have reporting finding about 40 dead gulls in the last two weeks alone.
All 11 species of seagull found in Britain, including the most commonly seen herring gulls, are protected species under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.
Shooting a seagull is a criminal offence which carries a maximum sentence of six months in jail or a £20,000 fine.
Anyone with any information on the shootings should contact NSRP on 07765 114599 or Sussex Police on 0845 6070999.
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Your Say YourArgus
SteveHove, Hove says...
3:39pm Fri 14 May 10
Christophe Hawtree, Hove says...
4:17pm Fri 14 May 10
roast, Brighton says...
4:24pm Fri 14 May 10
Greenlover wrote:they are both vermin and both need to be controlled.
suppose the same tory lovers who go round murdering foxes.
Girl Racer, Burgess Hill says...
4:51pm Fri 14 May 10
Hector66, Macau says...
5:18pm Fri 14 May 10
Variable, Brighton says...
6:37pm Fri 14 May 10
ade1200, Portslade says...
7:23pm Fri 14 May 10
roast wrote:Shoot one lot and only allow the other to form a minority government. Let the public decide which.
Greenlover wrote:they are both vermin and both need to be controlled.
suppose the same tory lovers who go round murdering foxes.
On_the_Level, Brighton says...
7:53pm Fri 14 May 10
PeteBrighton, Brighton says...
9:01pm Fri 14 May 10
lorrie2, brighton says...
9:50pm Fri 14 May 10
cheezburger, brighton says...
12:01am Sat 15 May 10
ArthurD, Horsham says...
7:55am Sat 15 May 10
pat of worthing, worthing says...
9:33am Sat 15 May 10
Seagulls are graceful birds, foxes are beautiful creatures but they do not belong in towns, so stop moaning and clear up after yourselves and they will return to where they belong.
Nyberg, Ystad says...
9:40am Sat 15 May 10
cheezburger wrote:It's true. No one makes you live by the sea. If you don't like seagulls - then move, you muppets!
Usually when someone has the temerity to complain about a club playing very loud music or the patrons making a racket the apologists say 'well you shouldnt live in a vibrant loud city' etc etc. Well if you dont like gulls then dont live on the coast! I find it frankly disgusting that in a town that has a local football team that uses the nickname 'the seagulls' has people who avocate shooting said same birds. You disgust me.
They were here long before us, and will be here long after we are gone.
Gulls are not strictly sea birds. They are coastal. The live near the shores and feed on fish, or what they can scavenge off the land. They are only doing what they are designed to do, and if you don't like it - tough.
I'm not particularly an animal lover, but shooting these birds is futile.
However many you shoot, there will be hundreds more to fill their places.
Utter waste of time.
Wet of Worthing, Worthing says...
10:17am Sat 15 May 10
Whitedot, says...
10:36am Sat 15 May 10
Christophe Hawtree wrote:How can you shoot seagulls if you're dead?
Yes, it is a terrible headline. It should be "shooting seagulls dead". Let us hope that the shooters are the sub-editors are caught.
Mabel, seaford says...
11:22am Sat 15 May 10
If we all complained about the stupid people who feed them (with no regard whatsoever for their neighbours) that would be a nice bit of revenue for somebody!
THEY ARE SEA BIRDS. NOT GARDEN BIRDS!!!!!!!Good God people used to eat seagull eggs ! Kept the population down nicely.
Peteinblack, Bath (ex-Brightonian) says...
11:57am Sat 15 May 10
Here in Bath, we are plagued by them (as is Gloucester); all you can hear in the summer, from dawn to mid-night, is their hideous screeching and squawking,
They are noisy, aggresive and filthy, and make people's lives a misery.
Those on this message board who joke about this matter have clearly never had gulls nesting on their (or neighbour's) roof, and been woken up daily at 4.am, or dive-bombed in their own gardens, when they aggressively defend their chicks and 'their' territory.
As the authorities won't tackle this problem, I'm not surprised that some people are taking the law into their own hands - and the typical do-gooders are whingeing.
I wish someone here in Bath would shoot the gulls - seriously, I'd happily pay them; everyone hates them, residents, tourists and local busineses alike.
Why are they protected; they are not rare or on the verge of extinction. It is WE who need protecting from THEM.
tilburyre, Worthing says...
2:16pm Sat 15 May 10
Whitedot, says...
3:32pm Sat 15 May 10
chroma, hove says...
3:32pm Sat 15 May 10
Peteinblack wrote:The voice of stupidity.
Reward the gunmen; urban gulls are a real nuisance, and not just in coastal towns, as some of the idiots on here are claiming. Here in Bath, we are plagued by them (as is Gloucester); all you can hear in the summer, from dawn to mid-night, is their hideous screeching and squawking, They are noisy, aggresive and filthy, and make people's lives a misery. Those on this message board who joke about this matter have clearly never had gulls nesting on their (or neighbour's) roof, and been woken up daily at 4.am, or dive-bombed in their own gardens, when they aggressively defend their chicks and 'their' territory. As the authorities won't tackle this problem, I'm not surprised that some people are taking the law into their own hands - and the typical do-gooders are whingeing. I wish someone here in Bath would shoot the gulls - seriously, I'd happily pay them; everyone hates them, residents, tourists and local busineses alike. Why are they protected; they are not rare or on the verge of extinction. It is WE who need protecting from THEM.
Reward the gunmen. Presumably you'll have no problem in the very likely event when these idiots miss their targets and hit people?
As for your line on the 'good-doers', I disagree with your view, which doesn't make me a 'good-doer', but, by your reckoning, I should be allowed to come up to Bath and kick your sorry backside all the way down to Penzance, if I feel like it, after all, you are advocating a lawless society.
In my experience, those who share your gung-ho views, are the very first to quote the terms of law when and where it suits them.
I see you'll reward others, but in your twisted logic, won't take action yourself, instead encouraging those with marginally less wit than yourself to take action.
KarenT, Hove says...
5:16pm Sat 15 May 10
Greenlover, Greenland says...
5:38pm Sat 15 May 10
Variable, Brighton says...
5:51pm Sat 15 May 10
So the problem is man-made and should be dealt with as such.
Sussevingian, Burgess Hill and Seattle says...
7:10pm Sat 15 May 10
KarenT, Hove says...
7:15pm Sat 15 May 10
Uge, Brighton says...
3:42pm Sun 16 May 10
Big Nasty, says...
5:22pm Sun 16 May 10
icansee, brighton says...
7:21pm Sun 16 May 10
they can be aggressive when nesting and protecting their young
there are more seagulls in the town these days ..and this is being addressed with communal bins etc
the seagulls will go wherever there is food ..and it is posssible to manage the problem without shooting them!
if we are smart, then their can be less seagulls and therefore less problems with them!
StvSeagulls, says...
11:45am Mon 17 May 10
llssssss! :0)
Mabel, seaford says...
11:49am Mon 17 May 10
As it seems by mutual consent that we are the ones responsible for the problem ,perhaps we should try to find a solution.
1) Obvious -don't feed them.ANYWHERE.
2) Don,t open up any more landfill sites.They are the curse of the south coast and although I don;t like the idea of a burner at Newhaven perhaps it will help solve part of the problem.
3) Stop the schoolchildren eating their packed lunches outside on the playing fields.Schools have flat roofs (lovely places to nest).Why on earth can't they eat indoors before going out. Would keep the rubbish down as well.
4)Get the council to put up LARGE notices on the seafront. Or even as you enter a seaside town .ie-Welcome to ******* Please do not feed the seagulls. People coming for a day by the sea do not realize what a pest they have become.
5) Fine people who persistently feed them.
Just a few suggestions.I'm sure you lot can (sensibly)think of more.
icansee, brighton says...
5:14pm Mon 17 May 10
Mabel wrote:yes
Quite interesting comments (from the people who were sensible and not trying to be "funny") As it seems by mutual consent that we are the ones responsible for the problem ,perhaps we should try to find a solution. 1) Obvious -don't feed them.ANYWHERE. 2) Don,t open up any more landfill sites.They are the curse of the south coast and although I don;t like the idea of a burner at Newhaven perhaps it will help solve part of the problem. 3) Stop the schoolchildren eating their packed lunches outside on the playing fields.Schools have flat roofs (lovely places to nest).Why on earth can't they eat indoors before going out. Would keep the rubbish down as well. 4)Get the council to put up LARGE notices on the seafront. Or even as you enter a seaside town .ie-Welcome to ******* Please do not feed the seagulls. People coming for a day by the sea do not realize what a pest they have become. 5) Fine people who persistently feed them. Just a few suggestions.I'm sure you lot can (sensibly)think of more.
reverse the trends that encouraged them in the first place
they didnt come inland because we didn't shoot them ..the seagulls come in search of food!
tom servo, brighton says...
3:56pm Tue 18 May 10
Mr Lahey, Sunnyvale says...
4:24pm Tue 18 May 10
tom servo wrote:I was told by a borderline psychotic doorman from Hull, while working at a festival once, that his favourite way of dispatching the birds was spraying WD40 on a slice of bread. (poison?) although I've never really wanted to cross that line from being broadly in favour of animals to vermin vigilantism.
Can we stop messing about with picking them off one by one and come up with a plan to do the job properly. Maybe we could line our bins with poison and let the **** things kill themselves.
Leon, Brighton says...
6:31pm Tue 18 May 10
calling 'da police, whoop whoop whoop"
.
~ GLC :)
Mabel, seaford says...
8:24pm Tue 18 May 10
Leon, Brighton says...
10:57pm Tue 18 May 10
Mabel wrote:Get with it Mabel! Are you not into the pi$$ taking & novel records of Goldie Looking Chain. Are you 80 years old as your name suggests? I am certainly no imbecile, it just popped in my head as I read the article ...so I popped it on here - a forum for free speech.
Oh god ! another complete imbecile.If you've got nothing to say ,then don't bother.
.
"So why don't you pop off"
(I think it was Eminem who said that)
.
Oh, and for the record, I too think these chaps should get a £5,000 reward, not a fine. A cull is overdue and the more common of these rats with wings should not be protected.
Mabel, seaford says...
6:21am Wed 19 May 10
No I'm not 80 Leon, but old enough to remember a nice peaceful environment
monkeymoo, brighton says...
6:39am Wed 19 May 10
It's up to you to deal with the Seagulls how you see fit!!! So does this mean i can shoot them?
code word: bread-vinegar
Mabel, seaford says...
7:07am Wed 19 May 10
Keep wearing them down with complaints.
JamboBrighton, Brighton says...
11:19am Wed 19 May 10
North Laine
The Lanes
Simples
LimpWristed, Brighton says...
1:18am Fri 21 May 10
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Greenlover, Greenland says...
3:38pm Fri 14 May 10