‘Seagull saga an accident’
A Facebook post about children trying to catch seagulls using baited fishing hooks on Wilderness beach had readers spewing fire on Saturday afternoon, 11 July. The post by a Wilderness resident claimed that he found three children catching seagulls with baited hooks and "trying to fly them like kites..." The post has since been removed.
Obviously the bird kept on wanting to fly away, they never intended to ‘fly it like a kite’.
But the family's legal representative, Johan van Zyl, says that is not how it happened. "The children were fishing when the seagull grabbed the bait.
“It was nothing more than an unfortunate accident.
“They panicked and didn't know what to do... There was never any intention to harm the animal," he said in a telephone interview with George Herald on Tuesday.
The resident who created the post, however, said initially he saw the children throwing something into the air and thought they were feeding the gulls, but passing by again later, he noticed two baited fishing lines on the beach and "a third hook was already stuck in a seagull's mouth."
He said he tried to help the bird and a man claiming to be the children's father assisted him to get the hook from the bird's beak, "but not before suggesting we simply cut the line and let the bird fly away hook and all."
According to Van Zyl, the children and their father were desperately trying to free the seagull in distress, not mutilating it.
"Any fisherman will be able to tell you that these unfortunate things happen as seagulls are notoriously cheeky and opportunistic and often try to grab bait.
“The only reason it was initially suggested that the line be cut is because they didn't know what else to do - in the end the hook was removed. Obviously the bird kept on wanting to fly away, they never intended to 'fly it like a kite'. These people are animal lovers and my client's daughter regularly visits the welfare centre, Oudtshoorn
Dogs in Need (Odin)," he said. Local PhD student and marine bird rehabilitator,
Zanri Schoeman, says that marine birds do occasionally get hooked by fishing tackle.
"Gulls are scavengers so they tend to grab and eat bait. This could lead to their death if left untreated," she said.