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Gull Found Wrapped In Duct Tape

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By TONY MARRERO

Hernando Today

Published: September 26, 2008

HERNANDO BEACH - Ivan Edwards spotted a grey and white lump in his back yard Thursday morning and figured it to be a piece of driftwood or palm tree coconut.

Then the lump moved. Edwards noticed feathers sprouting from a knot of duct tape.

Someone had apparently caught the seagull and taped it from beak to tail, Edwards said.

"Somebody with a mean streak," Edwards said.

The tape had been wrapped around the gull's beak, head and body. One eye and both wings weren't covered but the bird could barely move, said Edwards, of Flamingo Drive.

Edwards and his daughter used scissors to cut off the tape off the gull's eye and beak and started on the body when they realized it was time to call for help.

"They'd wrapped it twice, and it was wrapped really tight," Edwards said. "He wouldn't have had any feathers left."

A sheriff's deputy arrived and called Hernando County Animal Services. The gull was still feisty enough to bite animal services Officer Brenda Rogers when she arrived.

"He wanted to get away from me, which is very good," Rogers said. "He was healthy enough to fight me."

Rogers took the gull to Animal Medical Clinic on Deltona Boulevard, where veterinarian Brent Moore and staffers used mineral oil to break down the tape's adhesive. It took about 40 minutes to remove all of the tape, said Amy Laskowsi, a veterinary technician at the clinic.

They gave the gull a bath and checked for broken bones. His legs had been bent back but weren't broken.

"He's doing OK now," Laskowski said.

The staff named the gull Scuttle after the seagull in the Disney movie "The Little Mermaid."

By Friday afternoon, Scuttle was up on his feet.

"That's a really good sign," said Linda Christian, owner and operator of 100 Acre Wood, a Brooksville wildlife sanctuary.

Christian admitted she was worried when clinic officials said the gull couldn't get up onto its feet, a sign it wouldn't be able to be released and have to be euthanized.

"It's looking like he's just going to need some R and R and some food," she said.

Christian, who called Scuttle's experience "unbelievable" and "disgusting," said she'll put Scuttle through physical therapy in a pond at the sanctuary with hopes his legs will heal enough to be released.

"A lot of it depends on whether the animal has the will," she said. "A lot of them fight to get themselves back."

Rogers said she suspects someone was trying to see whether the gull could still fly wrapped in the tape. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission is investigating the case.

"We're hoping somebody saw something," she said.

Anyone with information on should call Rogers at Hernando County Animal Services, 796-5062.

Reporter Tony Marrero can be reached at 352-544-5286 or lmarrero@hernandotoday.com.

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