Town's gulls face cull campaign

The gulls are becoming increasingly bold in their hunt for food

A campaign has been started to deal with the problem of rowdy seagulls in a Northumberland seaside town.

Berwick-upon-Tweed's herring gulls have become increasingly daring in their feeding habits, often swooping down to snatch food from passers-by.

Now the town's newspaper - the Berwick Advertiser - has called for a cull of the troublesome birds.

But animal rights campaigners say the problem can be solved without resorting to killing the gulls.

The newspaper cites stories of people being attacked and having shopping stolen, as well as droppings piling up around the town.

It says its "Cull the Gulls" campaign reflects the opinion of the majority of residents of Berwick, as well as the nearby towns of Tweedmouth and Spittal.

But seabird expert Dr John Coulson said killing the gulls might not be the best approach.

If you shoot the gulls, the survivors will simply lay more eggs - this is what always happens Mary Brady, Animal Rights magazine

He said: "At present, shooting or killing them by using narcotic drugs is legally very difficult.

"I think it will have to be a non-lethal method of driving the gulls out of the town centre, such as a team of workers using a cherry picker to disturb the gulls every day from the beginning of March right through to May, although this will be expensive."

Mary Brady, a writer for Animal Rights magazine, said the gulls' recent behaviour has been caused by dwindling food supplies and that a cull will not solve the problem,

She said: "If you shoot the gulls, the survivors will simply lay more eggs - this is what always happens.

"The major problem is that we've left them nothing to eat. People talk about them coming up aggressively and taking food out of their hands.

"That's not what seagulls used to do - they used to be able to feed themselves."

Berwick Council said its current policy was to discourage feeding the gulls and use a seagull scaring device in the spring months. It has no current plans to introduce culling.