A gull was punched to death after stealing a man's chip. The deadly blow was struck near a Wetherspoon pub in front of horrified onlookers and the man has banned from returning to the venue.
The sight and sound of the killer punch shocked people near the Lord High Constable in Gloucester Docks. Police and the RSPCA have been informed about the distressing incident, GloucestershireLive reports.
One woman, who does not wish to be named, said she heard the force of the punch the bird received while out in the city last Friday. She said: "I did not see it but I heard the clunk of the gull being hit.
“It sounded like someone had punched a leather sofa with a good wallop. I turned around a someone asked the man if he had punched the seagull.
“He did not care though. He just said, ‘yeah I did. It nicked one of my chips.’”
The bird is said to have been rolling around on the floor for some time. A member of the public picked up the gull and moved it to a quiet space behind a plant pot in Orchard Street.
The woman said: “There was a table of ten people who saw what happened and they were not happy. His attitude was not caring, I asked him if he was serious to do something like that, told him he was disgusting and vile.
“Why could he not just shoo it away. It was horrible to see it after it was hit.
“I don’t know if his girlfriend is aware of it because she was not there when it happened. As soon as she came back from the toilet they left.”
The witness has since reported the incident to the police. Wetherspoons have also reported the incident to the police and RSPCA and have captured what happened on CCTV.
Wetherspoon spokesman Eddie Gershon said: “An incident occurred involving a customer of the pub and a seagull on Friday evening which the pub management was made aware of after it had happened.
“On a review of the CCTV of the inciden , it did not happen on the pub premise itself but the individual concerned will still be barred from returning to the pub.
“The pub notified the RSPCA immediately and the police will also now be notified. CCTV of the incident has been retained and we will assist in any investigation.”
A spokesperson for the RSPCA said: “We would urge anyone with first hand information about this incident to contact us on 0300 123 4999.”
