I killed a seagull.

Yesterday morning I was up early to go fishing with an old school buddy. We went up to Portsea, fishing in Port Phillip Bay. My friend had already caught a baby snapper, which he through back, and an octopus which he gave to the neighbour fisherman.

I decided to stop with bait fishing and put a squid lurer on. Had a few casts, didn�t catch anything. I cast one more time, and really went for distance with this one. It flung in the air and I waited for it to plunge. I soon noticed that the line just keep reeling out, fast. I thought maybe it was the wind, so I flipped the line catch over then heard a squuuawk! Having just realised a seagull had flown into my line and tangled its self very badly. So I had no choice but to reel the bird in. Mean while I�m the attention of the whole pier and a near by family comes over to �help�. I bring it up to the pier and grabbed it and was trying to untangle it while its squawking and biting. The mother of that family started covering it with her jacket, which was making it harder for me to help the bird. Then they started saying to cut the line. I didn�t want to, but the mob had spoken. So I whip out my trusty pocket knife and cut the line. No one was holding the bird properly while I cut the line so the seagull scrambled back off the pier, lost from my rescue.

It couldn�t fly, all it could do was float. The other seagulls left after a few minutes leaving it to drift off alone. The worst thing was that the squid lure was still attached to him dragging beneath the water with him. So when the seagull catches a squid, it�ll get pulled under the water with it. Kind of like in some sort of Squid horror film.

If it wasn�t for that mother and all the people telling me what to do, if I had just done what I was trying to do, the bird would have lived.

I felt bad for the next 20 minutes or so. They are pretty annoying birds.

try taking a bag of chips to a beach of you want some to see something intresting with those damn greedy birds

I know how you feel. Sometimes it doesn't matter how good your intentions are, if a living things time is up then there isn't anything much you can do about it. I remember once I saved a bird from one of my cats that had come to the front door with it in it's mouth. I brought the bird indoors and amazingly it was fine and started flapping around my living room. I opened the window to let it fly out and where did it fly? Straight into the path of my other cat which was sitting in the front garden. I felt pretty gutted about that.
Another time I was at work when I found a beautiful butterfly in the shop.I was surprised to find it as it was a cold time of year and thought you only saw butterflies in the summer . It wasn't moving much so I didn't put it out because I thought it was dying anyway. The next day I went in to find it flying all around the shop! I told my boss about it and he said that it might set off the alarms and to try squashing it. I was horrified because I don't like the thought of killing anything so I tried to catch it, the next thing I knew, it had flown straight into a spider web in the window. I couldn't help feeling bad about not putting it out in the first place. I would have thought it would be better to die falling asleep in the cold than in the jaws of a spider.
sometimes I think that it's the intention that counts not nessesarily the outcome of your actions. You tried to do the best for the seagull, but perhaps it was just it's time to go.

Yeah, I know how you felt man. I hate killing animals for no reason.

The other day, while I was driving to work, and dumb squirrel jumped on the road, right in front of me. (well, few meters away...). So the road was emply, no other car in sight, so I gaved the steering wheel a little pull on the left, so the squirrel would pass right in the middle of my 2 front wheels. Luckily, the little thing must have been scare to death, and kind of froze temporarly.

So he didn't move while I passed over it, and I saw in my mirror after that he was o.k., and the little jerk runned off the road, but instead of crossing the road, the dumb little # returned to the same side he was coming from. What idiots are they... He's damn lucky I haven't squashed him... (especially since I was doing like 90 km/h)

Don't know why, but I just felt damn good I haven't kill it.

I am the ultimate animal lover and I completely respect your attempts to save the bird. I've rescued several animals in my lifetime and it's always felt damn good to do so. It makes me very happy to see animal-friendly people at ATS doing their best to help the little critters.

Originally posted by StationsCreation
a near by family comes over to �help�. I bring it up to the pier and grabbed it and was trying to untangle it while its squawking and biting. The mother of that family started covering it with her jacket, which was making it harder for me to help the bird. Then they started saying to cut the line. I didn�t want to, but the mob had spoken.

I wish the interfering sheep would just sod off and leave things alone. Those kind of cretins just make things worse. They watch an episode of 'Crocodile Hunter' and suddenly they are fully trained vets !
They can just

That would make me really sad killing the poor bird. To try to make it up bring some chips or food to the area where it lives and throw them around to feed its friends and family, maybe the birds will at least get a decent meal. You will feel better feeding the poor remaining birds some food maybe.

Stations, I killed a seagull once, too. I was at the park with friends, and I was eating a sandwich wrapped in tin foil. After I was done, I squished the tin foil into a ball and threw it at a seagull.

The stupid bird flew over and ate it!! It was a big ball, too. I didnt actually see the bird die, but Im pretty sure it did. I felt bad for a while afterwards. You'll get over it. Its the circle of life.

Once when I was a much younger Zedd, a friend and I were at the beach skipping rocks. We started to bet and after I won a couple, he bet me I could not hit a seagull that started swimming over. I said I could...but I wouldn't. Things became heated and in one of those not thinking moves I said, "sure I could watch" and threw a hard shot...

I hit right in the head and the bird flipped over in the water. I couldn't believe I hit it in one shot and my friend was shocked too. It was a strange sense of pride and shame.

Thought for sure it was dead as it floated for like 15 minutes. Then it just popped up and was totally fine.

I guess my point is you just never know. And like we all do, you learn and grow. The only way to maturity is by living and making mistakes.

hehe reminds me of when i was 9 or so i had this sling shot and the first shot i fired at this pond i hit a swan i nthe eye, and it swims in a circle with its head down for about 10 mins...

but i saw it the next day and it was fine lol i took off running, i wasnt going down for some duck!

Can you really feed an alka-seltzer to a seagull and it will explode? I have heard this and was curious as to if this would actully happen.

Originally posted by McGotti
Can you really feed an alka-seltzer to a seagull and it will explode? I have heard this and was curious as to if this would actully happen.

I think it is true. It would work specifically with medication that fizzes when placed in liquid. So when the seagull eats it and the tablet reaches its stomach it froths up, bloating and killing the bird.

Some friends of mine did it at school a few years ago, but I think it was the wrong tablet. Plus the bird flew away from our veiw shortly after eating it. So I have no experiential evidence. But its sounds possible in theory.

I wonder if the bird would actually explode as opposed to a mild rupture.I guess that would depend on the amount of gas that is produced by a tablet.Im not sure if the force produced by an alka-seltzer would be ample enough to cause a violent explosion.I may have to try an experiment with a balloon and see how much gas is produced.Im thinking that it would kill the bird but not make it explode like a pipe bomb.

[Edited on 23-2-2004 by McGotti]

i dont know with seagulls but i do know that with bicarbonate of soda if you feed that to a pigeon it will explode.

You guys blow up seagulls?? I hope in your next life you come back as a seagull who eats alka-seltzer!

when i was about 7 years old i was at the beach and i had some g.i. joes... so, me being the bastard i am, i started throwing my guys at seagulls. one must have thought it was food or something, grabbed it and flew off. i watched it, being pissed off it took my g.i. joe. then, as it was flying off, it just stopped and plumited limp into the water... i never did get my g.i. joe back... *sniff*

Originally posted by JustAnIllusion
Stations, I killed a seagull once, too. I was at the park with friends, and I was eating a sandwich wrapped in tin foil. After I was done, I squished the tin foil into a ball and threw it at a seagull.

The stupid bird flew over and ate it!! It was a big ball, too. I didnt actually see the bird die, but Im pretty sure it did. I felt bad for a while afterwards. You'll get over it. Its the circle of life.

LOL!! I did almost this exact same thing, except different. I found a large rock and balled it up in a piece of bread, threw it at a seagul and the damn thing tried to eat it. Fortunately it got stuck in the poor fellas throat and it went around the parking lot making a sort of gag reflex and no sound. I'm pretty sure it's dead.

Another time my brother was feeding seagulls off the back of our boat when he decided it would be fun to see if he could shoot one. So he cocks his little Daisy repeater air rifle and pops a seagul right in the throat. Sickest thing I had seen in a while. As soon as he shot you could see the hole in the throat he made like a little, black, gaping, well, hole. It too drifted out to see to my brothers uproarious laughter until a few other seagulls came down to cannabalize it.

Cool huh.

I remember sitting in a park in the UK once eating fish & chips and throwing the occasional chip to the gulls. Seeing this, a couple of squirrels came over (they obviously enjoy the occasional chip too) and ended up fighting with the seagulls for what was left. It was funny to see one of them bitch slap a gull and start chittering at it for the chip.

Seagull killers--Don't try giving the poor creature alka-seltzer. Suppose it does blow up, are you going to laugh.

Off the bird topic, me and a friend were driving to get smokes (back when I smoked) and we saw an animal in the road, so my friend stops in front of it.

It's a possum that had obviously been hit because it was all bloody and his rear leg was mush.

We called his girlfriend (who was oddly a vet) and she said that it could not be helped.

We went back to the house (around the corner) to get a shovel to put it down and scoop it off the road.

Before we got back some blind asshole had smashed it to bit already.

Well, I wasn't going to get my shovel all nasty just to get it off the road so we just left it.

Come to think of it, that whole situation sucked.

But really, I won't swerve to miss an animal. I've had too many people get in nasty wrecks all for the cause of a squire or something.

Screw em. Getting my car fixed is expensive and loaner cars tend to suck ass.