On the boardwalk: Wichita man cited for beating seagull

Laguna Beach police cited a Wichita man on “suspicion of animal cruelty” after he beat a seagull with a stick when it attacked him and his wife while swooping down on their ice cream.

The Orange County Register reports that Dragan Djuric, 50, was waving a stick trying to fend off several aggressive — and endangered — Heermann’s gulls as they ate ice cream on the boardwalk early on New Year’s Eve. Laguna Beach police said the gulls hit Djuric’s wife in the head and pooped on him. One of the birds suffered a broken wing and was later euthanized.

  • JimRome

    I would have done the same thing. Those flying rats are a hazard along the coastline. War bird beaters.

  • Frank_Lingo

    Word to the bird: beat it!

    More to the point, perhaps Mr or Mrs Djuric were traumatized by watching Hitchcock’s “The Birds” and were in terror? The infliction of suffering upon these people requires some kind of redress, but how does one sue wildlife?

    Perhaps the city of Laguna Beach can sell “gull insurance” to compensate you if you are attacked?

    Tis much easier to lampoon this than try to find the humor in senate confirmation hearings or analyzing the probable FCC Chairman appointment..

    Have fun, kids!

  • WHOKNOWS

    That’s absolutely the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. So, defending yourself against a flying menace is now “animal cruelty”?? Florida is known for its stupid laws (and even stupider population), but this takes the cake.

    Gulls are obnoxious, overpopulated pests, nothing more, nothing less- and under the same curcumstances I would have done the same thing.

  • shortcutlc

    WHOKNOWS – in response to your comment, the only obnoxious, overpopulated pests on earth are humans. And there are only a few caring humans that try to protect animal from us. Because of our arrogance, there are no animals safe from the majority of us unless someone passes a law. You sound like one of the pests.

  • csmith_3

    to whoknows. this was in california so i don’t think florida law had anything to do with it.

  • me

    shortcut- what about the poor cow who gave the milk that made the ice cream that was stolen by the white vulture? you gotta be kiddn me

  • Buddhadude

    I remember a group of 20-25 of us going to Bush Gardens in Tampa years ago. We would have fun throwing handfulls of popcorn at eachother to get the gulls to attack for us.

  • Silverdire

    I actually just returned yesterday from a vacation in Long Beach, CA, and had a few run-ins with obnoxious seagulls. I found waving your arms and yelling at them is a pretty good deterrent–there was no need for violence. Those wily pelicans, though, they’re a whole different story :-)

  • StephenD

    I think he is deservedly getting some kind of punitive sentence. If the birds were so much of a nuisance to our intrepid partygoer, why didn’t he and his wife merely go indoors?

  • skiplunch

    Call this Karma. As a neighbor of Mr. Djuric, he deserves everything he gets. He has a tendency to want to do things “his way” and finds loopholes to get his way. I’m sure he’ll figure out how to get out of this.