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AIBU?

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Original poster

AIBU to wonder if a seagull could really steal a chihuahua????

267 replies

CrocodilesCry · 26/07/2019 15:38

So people are saying on social media that the chihuahua "plucked" from a garden down south wasn't actually taken by a seagull at all.

Searches have been called off. I've read people saying that the dog had actually been sold and this was a worst ever cover story Shock

So what does everyone think really happened? Could a seagull take a 2kg dog?

PS, I did look for other posts about this and couldn't find any. Apols if this is a TAAT or anything's been deleted for any reason.

OP posts:
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8
ChicCroissant · 26/07/2019 16:06

I doubted this story when I saw it, although I didn't read it in detail.

Nesssie · 26/07/2019 16:06

SerendipityJane Golden eagles have been known to kill deer.

AIBU to wonder if a seagull could really steal a chihuahua????
Spinnaret · 26/07/2019 16:07

Herring gull. Not heron gull.
Herons don't have webbed feet.

SkydivingKittyCat · 26/07/2019 16:07

Given some posters here seem to think seagulls have webbed feet, I would be inclined to take a lot of discussion here with a truckload of salt

This seagull (with its very definite webbed feet) is wondering what you're on about?

AIBU to wonder if a seagull could really steal a chihuahua????
OhWhatFuckeryIsThisNow · 26/07/2019 16:08

It's more demonisation of inconvenient wildlife. Why are they so bold? Because they are provided with towns full of easy to scavenge food. (Ie the shite we leave lying about at the seaside) I was at a Belgian seaside town, plenty of birds, no rubbish, no aggressive behaviour. Animals don't follow human behaviour patterns, they aren't greedy, they aren't vicious, they are animals driven by instinct to breed, eat and feed their young.
Btw THERE ARE NO SUCH BIRDS AS SEAGULLS! There's herring, black backed, Pacific, black headed. No seagulls.

MyFokMarelize · 26/07/2019 16:08

Given some posters here seem to think seagulls have webbed feet, I would be inclined to take a lot of discussion here with a truckload of salt ....

OMG why would you flag your own stupidity by posting this without checking first? Grin

PinchOfSalt

Whisky2014 · 26/07/2019 16:12

@SerendipityJane

Given some posters here seem to think seagulls have webbed feet, I would be inclined to take a lot of discussion here with a truckload of salt ....

What the fuck are you talking about? They do have webbed feet.

LakieLady · 26/07/2019 16:12

Given some posters here seem to think seagulls have webbed feet, I would be inclined to take a lot of discussion here with a truckload of salt ....

But they do! sciencing.com/body-parts-seagull-8568454.html

I'm bird phobic, and seagulls terrify me more than any other bird. They're evil-looking bastards.

DP's not keen, either. One shat through the (open) sunroof of his beloved Jag once. The small consolation was that it shat all over his ex, he was completely unscathed.

RiddleyW · 26/07/2019 16:17

OMG why would you flag your own stupidity by posting this without checking first?

This! Surely you’d just have a quick google before posting a sneering rebuke!

SerendipityJane · 26/07/2019 16:19

Well that's it for QI Grin

What was I thinking of ? A seabird that can't land at sea but lives on cliffs (with the point being that city buildings are just man made cliffs) ?????

Damn you Stephen Fry Grin

anyway, as you were - and thanks to Nesssie (three "s"'s Grin) for that startling pic ...

pigsDOfly · 26/07/2019 16:20

Even a tiny dog isn't going to just sit still while a bloody great bird carries it off.

Ice creams, kebabs, chips etc all very easy for a seagull, even catching fish, as that's what they're designed to do.

But a dog, even a 2kg dog, struggling and fighting for its life is going to be very hard to carry very far in your beak.

In my experience, having lived on the South Coast, seagull are lazy, opportunist scavengers to a great extent who like an easy life. Anything looking like its going to be hard work, the seagull will just think sod it.

RiddleyW · 26/07/2019 16:20

I’d believe a seagull could kill a dog but I can’t imagine it carrying it off.

FurnitureAndBackgammon · 26/07/2019 16:21

I doubt very much a gull could pick up and carry off a dog, especially if the dog was moving and struggling to get free

And they're yappy little bastards. There's a big difference between a rabbit which is natural prey and a dog with sharp teeth.

I read that this family had a crowdfunding page up a little while ago to pay for an operation which was allegedly fake, don't know how true that is but there's certainly more to this story than meets the eye 🧐

pigsDOfly · 26/07/2019 16:24

@SerendipityJane.

Never put your trust in things you hear on QI.

Some of it is correct, but I've also heard some of the stupidest bilge imaginable from that programme.

BlackAmericanoNoSugar · 26/07/2019 16:27

I think a dog would be a struggle even for a large gull. I once saw a gull trying to fly off with a road kill rat, while I was driving towards it. It just couldn’t get any height with something that size in its mouth and a split second before I hit it with my windscreen it let go and flew off. It was a large London rat and probably a relatively small gull.

SerendipityJane · 26/07/2019 16:29

Never put your trust in things you hear on QI. Some of it is correct, but I've also heard some of the stupidest bilge imaginable from that programme.

Sigh. Well the bollocks SF spouted about GPS should have been a warning.

In their defence, they did 'fess up to the half life of facts, and admit that maybe 50% of "facts" they had stated had now changed.

That said, seagull feel ain't one of them.

Typical - just starting to cool off after yesterdays inferno, and now I have to sit here with the reddest face of all Grin

Wheres my wine ?

HeadsDownThumbsUpEveryone · 26/07/2019 16:31

Typical - just starting to cool off after yesterdays inferno, and now I have to sit here with the reddest face of all

Oh dear Serendipity, have a glass of wine and never recount this story in public, your friends and relatives will buy you seagull shite for years. Wine

BarbaraofSeville · 26/07/2019 16:33

Well I hope it's not true but then you still have to worry about what happened to the poor dog.

Another story at about the same time came out about someone reporting a seagull harrassing their kitten, which could be significantly smaller than a chihuahua - saying that, the two I have right now weigh about 1800 g each.

We have no seagulls but have seen red kites, which is even more worrying as they probably could take a kitten.

PomBearWithAnOFRS · 26/07/2019 16:34

I've seen a seagull kill a pigeon, it was horrible, like something out of a horror film. They are vicious fuckers, and can grow pretty big. When DD was in her buggy aged about 18 months one in Whitby was eye to eye with her, and snatched food from her hand.
I would believe one could kill a tiny dog and then carry it off, not so much carrying it off alive.

ChrisPrattsFace · 26/07/2019 16:34

@HeadsDownThumbsUpEveryone
English/Scottish Borders.. genuinely one kebab feeds four people it’s amazing!

Sgtmajormummy · 26/07/2019 16:37

I’ve seen a seagull catch a pigeon in flight, land and rip its head off.
Not much smaller than a chihuahua.
Nasty, aggressive birds and top of the food chain in many cases.

Sgtmajormummy · 26/07/2019 16:38

Cross post!

HeadsDownThumbsUpEveryone · 26/07/2019 16:38

English/Scottish Borders.. genuinely one kebab feeds four people it’s amazing!

Good to know, now I have to work on the DH and convince him we need to up sticks all because of a giant kebab...

TooLittleTooLate80 · 26/07/2019 16:38

I saw one pull a fish bigger than a chihuahua from a river in Northumberland a few years ago using its beak. That said the fish was obviously flatter.

#NoHelpAtAll

DixieTrix · 26/07/2019 16:40

No idea how to link but I read a news story on Monday that a seagull had mistaken a mans testicle for a birds egg in a nest. Poor guy was sunbathing nude in back garden & it swooped down & ripped his ball clean off.. Hospital sewed him back up minus his knackered knacker..
Think it was south England somewhere