Are seagulls pests and should they be culled?

I’VE never understood how seagulls can be a protected species. They screech from dawn to dusk, they scratch and mess all over the roofs of cars, and the rubbish that they eat from pulling our garbage bags apart ends up setting like concrete on our paintwork. Recent news states that they caused the death of a family pet, which wasn’t the first to die from their razor-sharp beaks. They swoop down like birds of prey, taking the food from your plate in outdoor cafes. I’m trying hard to think of something nice to say about them, but I can’t. I love animals but seagulls are a pest and should be treated as such. Come on, Mr Cameron, change these birds’ status to pest and cull them.

JOHN R. O’NEON, Folkestone, Kent. GuLLS, like many of nature’s creatures, are opportunists. In seaside resorts they’ve been encouraged by visitors to come for scraps of food as a form of entertainment. Locals largely ignore them. now, however, gulls have found easy pickings on our streets due to litter louts who discard food scraps and greasy packaging in close proximity to the many takeaways.

PETER FRISTON, Northwich, Cheshire. AS I write, my friendly daily seagull visitor is sitting on my kitchen window ledge, watching me. He knocks on the window three times a day and waits for half a dozen slices of chicken roll to eat at breakfast, lunch and supper. I have many more seagull friends a short walk from my home, and each one knows me, even among a crowd. They fly and screech excitedly whenever they see me arriving home in my car. We must not cull these intelligent, friendly birds.

GILLIAN DENNIS, Folkestone, Kent. EvEn to think of culling gulls is ridiculous when their numbers are in decline. Gulls are being displaced in this part of the coast by crows, which prey on all nestlings, including songbirds.

RAY WIGMORE, Eastbourne, Sussex.