Soused sea birds? Charity blames breweries for turning seagulls into boozehounds

Stumbling around after one drink too many may not be just a distinctly human habit. In fact, if animal welfare activists are to be believed, it’s one we share with seagulls in England’s sunny southwest.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) has received a number of complaints about seemingly drunk seagulls vomiting and failing to walk straight around the beaches of Devon, Dorset and Somerset – and officials from the charity are pinning the blame on local breweries for getting them soused.  

“At first, the birds look like they have botulism but then, after vomiting, most seem to recover,” RSPCA Inspector Jo Daniel told the Press Association. “The birds absolutely stink of alcohol when we collect them, so now our vans smell like pubs.”

The birds are thought to be scavenging around the sites of local watering holes and beer producers, growing accustomed to the taste. Some of the birds have even died from suspected hangovers and now the RSPCA is urging local breweries to secure their waste for fear of turning anymore seagulls into boozehounds.

But, who knows? It could simply be a case of the seabirds enjoying a period of unusually good weather and England’s march through the rounds of the World Cup in Russia. Have your say in the poll below.

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