When I visited Worcester city centre earlier in the week after a tip-off , I was shocked and saddened to see a gull in distress, stuck in netting around 12 feet in the air.
His death led to mixed comments on the Worcester News Facebook page.
Many people were saddened about the suffering of ‘Gary’ but some of the comments were, quite frankly, callous.
I thought we are supposed a nation of animal lovers?
‘Gary’ was thrashing around and I thought what a sad way for such a beautiful bird to end up.
Glenn Baird arrived quickly from the RSPCA to rescue the gull.
When he was rescued by the caring RSPCA officer, Glenn Baird, the gull was found to have broken one wing and one leg.
The decision by Mr Baird was to euthanise ‘Gary’ off site.
Heart-breaking and I must admit a tear did arrive at the corner of my eye.
But then my sadness turned to anger.
I could see netting stretched over the rear entrance of a high street store and it is to stop birds from causing a nuisance.
However, there was still evidence of bird faeces and a gull’s nest near to the netting so is the netting fit for purpose?
Where I work at Berrows House on the Hylton Road there are many gulls nesting on the roof yes it does annoy me when I have to clean my cherished car multiple times and sometimes it feels like sitting at the seaside with the din the birds make nearly non-stop during the day.
But such is life.
What right do we have as humans to think our needs come before the rights and needs of animals?
We all have the right to live on this planet and we need to coexist in a better way.
And sadly, this is not an isolated case and the RSPCA has revealed an astonishing 2,000 calls each year are received to their helpline to report birds caught in netting.
In my garden I like nothing better than to relax watching the birds that visit to feed on my newly installed bird table or eat some of the dried coconut that I have attached to one of the trees.
It also gives me immense pleasure seeing them bathe in the water bath I have also installed, particularly now the hot weather is here.
Let us be more kind to everyone.
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