Stop feeding the birds – or face court
Saturday 9th August 2008, 9:59AM BST.
PEOPLE who feed birds could face prosecution if they continue to give food to seagulls and pigeons.
An Islandwide problem has led the Parish of St Helier and Health Protection to take drastic measures and warn Islanders not to feed the birds because of the nuisance, noise and mess they cause.
Tony Andrews, director of municipal services for St Helier, said that bird feeders may end up at a parish hall inquiry and face prosecution if they fail to ignore the warnings.
‘People are coming down with trolleys full of food to feed the birds at Parade Gardens. We are thinking about prosecuting people,’ he said. ‘Feeding seagulls encourages them to snatch sandwiches out of people’s hands. We are getting more and more complaints about seagulls pestering people.
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Its not only the seaguls that bother people in parade gardens but also the drunks! shall we stop feeding them as well in the hope they disappear?
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A mass culling is what is called for ,Seagulls are a scurge to us all an no addition, for god sake kill them all,
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WHAT A LAUGH!!! this problem has been around for over forty years and how do we solve it – by allowing on street eating areas all over St Helier.
Don’t blame the birds for being more intelligent than the politicians!!!
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regarding the feeding of the seagulls and pigeons, the sea gulls are noisy , dirty , and greedy, and also a danger to any one who chooses to eat out side. they will come down and snatch any thing from you . and you can be badly hurt and frightened. . re the pigeons, they are full of disease, especially the feral ones. they are also noisy, dirty, smelly, and can make you ill. i live at le marais , and the pigeon problem has been bad for a long time. every thing has been done to deter them from landing , and breeding on our window sills , but to no avail. the problem are the people who WILL keep feeding them. what happens here is food ( bread , sausage, cake, orange peel etc , get thrown from the windows. in our block there is one person in particular who will not stop. she reckons she knows whats best for them and the seagulls, and you can’t make her se any different. it’s people like that who should be prosecuted, even tho they do it in the housing estates. we are only 2 mins from the beach and the sea , but they won’t go there. what do you do .?
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i agree prosecute these people, these birds are a menace,noise and filth is out of control,they should exist in their natural environment.
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Not to be harsh but we (humans) are taking over their natural environment with all the office blocks and flats !! I do however agree with the feeding problem, I have two young children and am always concious of the danger seagulls pose, especially during breeding season. People need to be educated properly and if necessary prosecuted if the feeding is being done in a highly populated area. We do have a problem which needs to be addressed but these animals have a right to exist just as we do and you cannot blame them for taking advantage of being given a FREE lunch – wouldnt we all do the same !!?
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moan,moan,moan
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This is an ongoing problem that has been allowed by us HUMANS to gt worse, at one stage it was ok to feed the birds as so they stopped fending for themselves and started to depends on us which we all let happen. Now all of a sudden people have stopped feeding them and so after years of having been fed they are expected to just get on with it and feed themselves well HELOOOOOOO how would we fair ? not very well springs to mind. This should have been a gradually procees of teaching the seaguls that their food is on the beach and designated areas should have been allocated as well as a dedicated beach for dogs to be off the lead is the summer !!!!! where people could feed them and entice them back to the beach and to their own enviroment. If this had been done we would not have the problem we have now also Humans in general make so much mess how anyone can complain about the birds is beyond me, we created the problem and if we are not carefull we will have a major problem with Rats next ! due to all the rubbish the us humans just dump around the place. Once again its the poor animals that get the blame for our own mistakes. My next door neigbour feeds the birds and my cats think it’s great they sit and watch and I never have a problem with the birds attacking me or my children.
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The Director of Municipal Services should pull his head out of the hole in the sand and Health Protection Officers take their blinkers off!
Bleating about seagull “noise” (their natural calls) is akin to those choosing to live next to the yacht basin whining about the clanging of rigging – As for “an Island-wide problem” this IS an island and, like it or not, is a natural home to the herring gull.
As for “feeding seagulls encourages them to snatch sandwiches out of people’s hands” what utter poppycock, littering does! It’s those very same hands that nonchalantly toss the unwanted food they contain onto the roads and pavements instead of depositing leftovers and packaging into the plentiful bins that litter the island. Get the picture? Just in case not. Seagulls aren’t daft, or blind, they quickly figure that one carton of chips on the pavement is worth at least 5 fish in the bay and, yes, sometimes they do bite the hands that feed them!
The Director and Officers should tackle the cause and not the symptom. Yes, think long and hard about prosecuting people – prosecute vermin of the human variety for littering – Mm, let’s think … a fixed penalty fine of say £20, this would fill the coffers of the states within a month to overflow and, in the same time-span, force said seagulls back to working for a living – all that would be left is for the states to figure out what to spend this hard earned cash on (perhaps it could offset the £1.4million tax payers bill raised by Dandara?)
Go on Director and Officers, apply a little logic – I dare you.
ALT
St Helier
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This is a JOKE! So what happens when i see seagulls feeding off the streets in St Helier after a busy weekend that’s been full of drunks dropping chips etc etc, come on now, how many people have seen the state of the streets after a busy weekend? I can quite easily get pictures to prove it! Easy pickings! Before you start fining people for feeding the birds, who’s to blame for all the mess on the Streets of St Helier? I also thought that people weren’t allowed to put out black sacks on the streets and used dustbins instead!
Well then you people that criticise the seagulls and others animals, take a step back, you’re more than likely one of these people that drop some of the litter on the streets of St Helier, I’m not going to stop feeding the birds just because of someone trying to blame the people feeding them when it’s the actual streets of St Helier that are to blame!
SO MR TONY ANDREWS, HOW ABOUT MAKIN A START ON CLEANING UP THE STREETS IN ST HELIER BEFORE YOU START POINTING A FINGER AT ANIMAL/BIRD LOVERS!
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Last week in St Aubin, I saw 2 kids feeding seagulls a pack of crisps. Needless to say, their parents were sat watching
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Hellooooooo Islanders – you need to seriously wake up. Before too long there will be more seagulls than people. My children have been attacked by these birds before and was reported in the JEP back in 2003 – I was born and raised in Jersey and left in the early 90s when seagulls had presented a real problem which was ignored and now here we are 2008 and let’s blame the ignorant who are usually visitors and don’t know the big seagull problem. Culling is the ONLY answer – again, what will it take – a child’s eye sight to be lost by the diving of a seagull eager to swipe a sandwich? PLEASE WAKE UP AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE BIRDS NOT THE PEOPLE.
A disappointed former resident.
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Seagulls have been an issue for a very long time and I agree – CULLING is the only answer !! My children and my father inlaw have been attacked by these horrible birds. People and visitors need to be made aware of the problems – perhaps more posters ?
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My son who is now aged 13yrs and my daughter who is 4yrs old enjoy feeding the birds. We’ve never had a problem with feeding them, neither have they had food snatched from their hands. Around the streets of St Helier i have seen birds tugging and pulling and snatching at black bags frantically trying to get to whats inside. We had a problem with refuse bags years ago, have you seen how many there are now scattered around the streets of St Helier of a night time waiting to be collected the next morning (maybe). How about vomit thats been left by individuals that havent been able to cope with their night out drinking and left for the seagulls to clean up! Whats going to happen?, there will be a cull, people will stop feeding them and the problem will continue, its a fact, until they get the refuse collection sorted out and the streets cleaned up, there will always be a problem, i too was born and raised here and with my family who was also born here. We have seen this problem going on for years and getting worse as the island population grows! Dont take it out on the birds when its the human race is at fault! After all we do share this planet and not own it dont we?
From a disgusted Jersey resident!
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Mark 9 Aug I like your comment my answer would be yes, To be quite hoest with you I think giving them money that they spend on drink to sit in the park with is of no use whatsoever – I feel sorry for them and understand that they may have gone through something tragic to get to that low place but surely the powers that be should give them board and lodgings in return for them working (even if it’s something like cleaning up the parks or whatever) they should try to get them to find their self respect that they must of had once upon a time. It’s all well and good saying to them they can not go back to their digs if they are drunk but that only leads them to sleeping in the park then they get arrested and stay at the police station so it’s like an unstopable merry-go-round that they can’t get off. I say put them to work make them earn their board and lodgings and don’t just give them cash handouts to go spend on drink.
As for the pesky birds I think it’s time you could go to the parish halls get handed pellet guns and be able to shoot the lot of them, Or failing that the states should invest in large birds of prey ornaments and place them on top of buildings all around the island the seaguls are scared of them so they stay away (anything like owls hawks eagles etc)I thought it was an old fisherman’s tale when I was first told in a discussion I had about them diving into my garden all the time But I went out and bought a plastic garden ornament of a hawk and I have never had a seagul in my garden since (I just move it about evry few days so its not in the same place for the seaguls to become wise that its only an ornament) But imposing large fines and prison terms is a good idea for people who insist on feeding them,
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