Should Gulls be Culled?

[LadyMoondancer]

It is natural for birds to hunt and kill small mammals and rodents. If you leave a beloved animal outside then you should not be surprised when nature takes course. It is not safe to put pets outside for a lot of reasons.

^  Yeah, this.  The world is a dangerous place for a small pet, but you can't empty out the world.  You can't get mad at wild animals for acting like animals do.

Here is my seagull story.  I lived in an apartment building that was slightly taller than the apartment building next door, so I had a view of their flat rooftop.  A pair of seagulls decided to raise their baby on the roof.  The couple fed their baby faithfully, preened each other, and rubbed their necks together.  The baby got to be about as big as the parents (but easy to tell apart because he was dappled grey while they were lovely smooth white and grey).

How he learned to fly was this:  he jumped up and down.  It was a very comical sight. I stood on my balcony in the evenings watching him jumping in place, flapping, learning what the wind felt like under his wings.  Sometimes he would sort of hover in place before landing unsteadily.  Finally took his first flight, with his parents beside him, and he did a lap around the building like a pro.  I'm so happy I got to see that.  They stuck around a few more days and then the three of them flew away together.

If I saw them on a beach somewhere, I wouldn't be able to tell them from any other squawking seagulls.  But that's okay, because all those other squawking seagulls also feel and love and learn and teach their children to fly. We usually don't see that part of their world but it exists.  Their lives are worthy of respect.

[lovesbabysquirmy]

Nope, humans are the invasive species!
That said, Anyone feeding these gulls or leaving food available for them should be getting  a serious fine, tourists included.

The seashore towns' top trash priority should be keeping their trash and rubbish away from the water, even if that is the sole job of a team of people who just ferry trash from the bins to a place that is animal proof.  When I see gulls and trash bits all over, I think badly of the town, NOT the animals who are doing to best to survive us humans.
Dont even get me started on cats and the outdoors, just no no no no.

[bright rabbit 1]

Update on the dog (this is weird)

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/9563143/gizmo-the-dog-owner-being-helped-by-psychic-to-find-chihuahua-snatched-by-seagull/

[Kikwifluff]

I have 5 pet chickens. Hawks and other animals such as raccoons and foxes try to kill them every so often. I’ve lost quite a few to predators, but I don’t think we should cull every hawk or fox or whatever in my county. My chicks are prey animals, like most small animals, and sometimes unfortunately they get killed. All I can do is make sure that I watch them when they go outside to freerange and to make sure they coop is secure. I would not leave a small dog or cat outside, that is the owner’s fault if a wild animal hurts them.
Wild animals must hunt to survive. I don’t think we should cull a bunch of animals if they’re just acting how they’re supposed to and if they’re healthy.

[bright rabbit 1]

I have 5 pet chickens. Hawks and other animals such as raccoons and foxes try to kill them every so often. I’ve lost quite a few to predators, but I don’t think we should cull every hawk or fox or whatever in my county. My chicks are prey animals, like most small animals, and sometimes unfortunately they get killed. All I can do is make sure that I watch them when they go outside to freerange and to make sure they coop is secure. I would not leave a small dog or cat outside, that is the owner’s fault if a wild animal hurts them.
Wild animals must hunt to survive. I don’t think we should cull a bunch of animals if they’re just acting how they’re supposed to and if they’re healthy.

I agree we shouldn’t kill Hawks and foxes.

Hence why I said in a post on this page those three types of gull their numbers should go be turned down a bit, I.E cull the makes or remove that bit that makes them male.

[lonewolf]

 I see nothing wrong with culling them if they're becoming a pest. Culling isn't the same as eradicating which is what some people seem to be comparing it too. No different than using hunting to keep populations of deer, etc. in check. I live in a state where the doe population is excessive, to the point the Wildlife and Parks offers extra antlerless deer tags every hunting season.

 We do have land gulls around here, but all they ever seem to do is fly around high overhead during the early fall. Instead the nuisance bird around this area is Canadian Geese, which are causing problems for cities (parks) and individuals that have ponds.

[Taffeta]

I live in the UK - the idea that living in the UK makes it understandable to want gulls killed doesn't make sense to me.

So I grew up in an area with two large pond-lakes and I worked in a place for a long time with a river. Lots of gulls. Never attacked by one. Also lots of geese, swans, which people go hysterical about - never attacked by one.

I now live near a river. Lots of gulls (swans, etc too) - not been attacked by one.

I DO know that there are issues in the UK with gulls which have become brazen enough to snatch food from people's hands and they can be intimidating. That's not an exaggeration exactly, plus I think that living near water, the gulls I encounter are more 'normal' than the urbanised ones encouraged to scavenge by human carelessness.

I'm really disturbed we're discussing an article from a trash paper like the Sun, also.

But my real point is this. I've lived around gulls and other water birds all my life and I've seen humans do horrific things to them - run them over, set their dogs on them, chase them - kids are ALWAYS chasing pigeons, seagulls, etc and their parents think it's innocent and fine (imagine you were a tiny little bird and some thundering brat was chasing you around a park!) I've heard a lot of hysteria about them, but never ever been threatened or attacked by any kind of water bird.

However I have been attacked by a dog. I hate dogs, and people take them absolutely everywhere.

Dogs can kill people.

They can kill children.

Should we cull dogs?

If the dog had killed the gull, it wouldn't have made the news article. We live in an odd world when we put different value on the lives of creatures and survival because one is "darling pet" and the other "wild beastie."

As for fox hunting, the most disgusting tradition on the planet, don't even get me started.

[Zapper]

These gulls need to brexit.



(Too soon?)

These birds are going after you because they learned from you that food comes out of your pockets, hands... you even bring small prey with you and let it prance about. Ducks would do the same if they could.
Gulls aren't "viscious", they are the clever girl raptors from JP who learned to open the door.
It's sad what happened to the dog but what are you gonna do? Decimate them until they regard you as a danger and stop coming? Won't happen because people will keep on feeding the birds.
You need to fine these people with heavy sums to make it stop. Very heavy sums. You need gull patrol guards who enforce these punishments.

I am sure UK could come up with some nice uniforms for GGP (gull guard patrol).