Burger attack sparks cull call
The Big Picture The Lookout. Nikon D300s ,16-85mm at 55mm,1/640sec at f22 Picture by Neil Silk w124002a 01/10/12
A LOCAL woman has renewed calls for the culling of seagulls to be re-introduced after being attacked as she walked down the street eating a burger.
Hazel Paling had just bought the snack from the burger bar on Marine Parade on Wednesday afternoon and had taken her first bite when the bird swooped and landed on her shoulder also taking a chunk out of the sandwich.
She screamed and dropped the food which the seagull then began tucking into.
Hazel, of Hudson Street, was left visibly shaken by the incident and said something needs doing before someone gets seriously injured.
She wasn’t feeding the gulls and says over the last few years the problem has got worse with the decline of the fishing fleet.
She said: “I wasn’t feeding them, I was feeding myself.
“You don’t buy a £2.20 burger and feed a seagull with it.
“We are a family of fishermen and they are seagulls, they used to feed at sea.
“When the boats were coming in they would gut the fish and throw the innards in the sea but now there are no fishermen they have accumulated in town and that is why they are attacking people for food because there is no other source.”
“They need culling, the council needs to look again at how they address the problem. It needs doing and it needs sorting.”
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Weather for Whitby
Sunday 19 May 2013
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Temperature: 8 C to 12 C
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