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‘Don’t Feed Seagulls, Kids’: Little Boy Chased By Aggressive Seagulls In Hilarious Viral Tweet

By Lauren Moccio
Published on: 15:57 PST, Jul 17, 2016

A hilarious viral tweet contains a video in which a 7-year-old boy learns the hard way why you shouldn’t feed the seagulls. The boy’s older cousin, Patricia, filmed him making the mistake of trying to feed seagulls at the beach and then fleeing them in terror when they descended upon him — and she said she was laughing the entire time. She also confirmed to intrigued Twitter users that he is fine, and being seven, immediately wanted to do it again afterward.

The slow-motion video has induced shock, laughter, and many retweets from other Twitter users, who are now tweeting frantically to try to get Patricia and her cousin, little A.J., an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, an American daytime talk show that often features the stars of viral videos.

The United Kingdom has been in the news over the past two summers due to out-of-control seagulls acting very aggressively in response to human beachgoers’ attempts to feed them. According to The Daily Telegraph, The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds called for new bylaws to combat this problem last summer, begging local councils to charge fines when tourists feed the seagulls, and to put up warning signs to stop members of the British public from encouraging the angry birds with samples of their fish and chips.

“We need creative thinking – like bringing in bylaws to stop people from feeding gulls in urban areas or putting up signs that encourage people not to feed them. There have to be long term answers. We want people to celebrate gulls as part of the seaside experience but at the moment they are hated.”

After vicious British seagulls killed a family’s pet Yorkshire terrier and another family’s pet tortoise, former Prime Minister David Cameron started enthusiastically lobbying for funding to fix the problem, as these families and others were told that they could not disturb the nests of these aggressive birds because they are a protected species in the United Kingdom.

The Honourable David Cameron wanted to start a “big conversation” about how to fix this, and prompted various Members of Parliament (MPs) to change the law that designated seagulls with the aforementioned protected status. He also pledged £250,000 in the March 2015 federal budget to launch a research project into the seagulls’ widespread attitude problem. Alas, following the 2015 general election, the new government — though headed by David Cameron’s Tory party — decided that the birds were “low priority” and axed the plan entirely.

In July 2015, former Prime Minister Cameron insisted he still wanted to take action. “Whether there is a need for a cull, what should be done about eggs and nests and the rest of it,” he said firmly. Of course, with the extremes of British politics in the past year, what with the Brexit referendum and Prime Minister Cameron’s replacement by a new Prime Minister, Theresa May, aggressive seagulls have sadly been put on the back burner yet again. Whether more incidents involving seagulls will prompt action at the federal level of the government of the United Kingdom remains to be seen.

As for Patricia and A.J. — Patricia is just happy that high-profile Twitter accounts who are sharing her video are finally giving her proper credit. Theft of intellectual property on social media is rampant, and sometimes when other users aren’t giving proper credit, viral traction can certainly help get the word out that you’re being treated unfairly.

It is also worth pointing out that following this hilarious event, Patricia agrees with the British Royal Society for the Protection of Birds: don’t feed the seagulls, kids.

[Image courtesy of Matt Cardy/Getty Images]

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