Quote:
Originally Posted by Joybells
Fbone - one for you - not so much a joke as a funny happening from my home town in NZ.
The seagulls were proving to be a real problem at our city dump - they were flying 50 miles inland to eat our rubbish.
The City Fathers were not amused, and wanted to get rid of the hundreds of circling seagulls, but were not allowed to kill them. A sneaky plan was devised, where sedative sandwiches (yes, really) were scattered around the dump, and the comatose seagulls were to be gathered up and taken back to the beach. (Did noone think this through?)
It worked beautifully, and seagulls fell asleep on schedule. However, so did all the sparrows that frequented the dump, and they were falling from the sky too, all over town. And the cats ate them, and staggered around like drunks before settling down to sleep.
Panic ensued among cat lovers as there beloved moggies went crosseyed and fell over, unable to be woken. The City Council had a lot of explaining to do, not the least being why they thought taking sleeping birds home would stop them from flying back when they woke up. It's just as well NZers are not a litigous bunch.
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Now that's funny
At first I thought they were going to ship the sleeping birds to Queensland. I must say it was a unique solution to reducing the sparrow population.
I believe seagulls have different behaviors in various locales. Where I live they can be aggressive and grab the sandwich from your hands or lunch basket. Other places they are more docile.
We have more of a Canada Geese problem. Some towns hire dogs to chase them away but they just return. And these geese despite their name do not migrate. The ganders are aggressive when their goslings are nearby. Although, they too will grab food out of your hand. They sneak up behind you and reach right over your shoulder to pluck food from your hand.