Birds Behaving Badly: The Regulation of Seagulls and the Construction of Public Space
| Author | Sarah Trotter |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/jols.12140 |
| Published date | 01 March 2019 |
| Date | 01 March 2019 |
JOURNAL OF LAW AND SOCIETY
VOLUME 46, NUMBER 1, MARCH 2019
ISSN: 0263-323X, pp. 1±28
Birds Behaving Badly: The Regulation of Seagulls and the
Construction of Public Space
Sarah Trotter*
This article is about the socio-legal construction of one of the least-
loved birds in the United Kingdom: the `seagull'. In particular, it is
about how the gull has been brought within the realm of the `anti-
social', in a context in which urban-nesting gulls (of which there are
many in the United Kingdom) are cast as causing a great deal of public
nuisance, ranging from noise, aggression, and mess, to attacks,
injuries, and stress. The article examines the measures adopted by
local authorities to regulate the gull population ± and to regulate
people, in the name of regulating gulls ± and shows how a construction
of the `seagull' underpins and justifies this regulatory framework. It
argues that the story of the regulation of seagulls in the United
Kingdom is also a story about the construction of public space, to the
point that the measures adopted here challenge the very idea of public
space.
INTRODUCTION
We and the gulls are co-habitants of the same world, uncomfortably
recognizing each other, thriving in the same way, failing in the same way,
behaving badly in the same way.
1
1
*Law Department, London School of Economics and Political Science,
Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, England
s.trotter@lse.ac.uk
I would like to thank the local authorities that were contacted as part of this research for
responding so willingly to the freedom of information requests on which this article is
based. I am also very grateful to the participants of the `Dissents and Dispositions'
conference of the Law, Literature and Humanities Association of Australasia for their
engagement with the first version of this paper in December 2017 and to Kai MoÈller,
Damian Chalmers, Michael Blackwell, and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable
comments on subsequent versions.
1 A. Nicolson, The Seabird's Cry: The Lives and Loves of Puffins, Gannets and Other
Ocean Voyagers (2017) 121.
ß2019 The Author. Journal of Law and Society ß2019 Cardiff University Law School
Seagulls rarely get a good press in the United Kingdom. Every year, when it
comes to the months of their breeding season (April to late July), the
newspapers fill with tales of their wrongdoing. At best they are deemed
noisy, aggressive, and messy; at worst, they are portrayed as `attackers',
2
`invaders',
3
`terrorisers',
4
`divebombers',
5
and `killers'.
6
Seaside towns, in
particular, are cast as being dangerous places to be, owing to the possibility
of being `dive-bombed' and injured by a gull.
7
In fact, if we took all the
news reports about gulls together, and drew up a picture of seagulls in the
United Kingdom based on these alone, we would probably come up with
something similar to Alfred Hitchcock's adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's
The Birds; indeed, the parallels with Hitchcock's film are drawn all too
frequently in the press reporting on urban gulls.
8
In July 2015, in the midst of an ever-deepening representation of seagulls
in these terms, the scale of the gull-related problems being depicted led the
then Prime Minister, David Cameron, to call for a `big conversation' about
the seagull `problem',
9
and in February 2017, it was debated by MPs in the
House of Commons.
10
This was not the first time for seagulls to make it into
Westminster;
11
but the February debate was the most sustained that there had
ever been, and it reflected an increasing degree of attention to a subject that
has bothered local authorities for years and has led to them expending in
2
2 `Attack of the birds: rising number of people injured by seagulls on Britain's coast'
Telegraph, 18 August 2017, at <www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/08/18/attack-
birds-rising-numbers-injured-seagulls-britains-beaches/>.
3 `Meet your new neighbours: The marauding seagulls invading Britain's towns'
Daily Mail, 9 January 2009, at <www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1110974/Meet-
new-neighbours-The-marauding-seagulls-invading-Britains-towns.html>.
4 `Far from the sea, urban seagulls terrorise skies' Independent, 27 August 2010, at
<www.i ndepe ndent. co.uk/ enviro nment/ nature /far-f rom-t he-sea -urban -seagu lls-
terrorise-skies-2064013.html>.
5 `Divebombing seagulls trap `terrified'' children inside during hottest day of year'
Telegraph, 23 June 2017, at <www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/23/divebombing-
seagulls-trap-terrified-children-inside-hottest/>.
6 `Killer seagulls flip pet tortoise to dine on it ``like a crab''' Times, 17 July 2015, at
<www.thet imes.co.uk/ article/ki ller-seagu lls-flip-pe t-tortoise -to-dine-on -it-like-a -
crab-5zzh6l6xv6q>.
7 `What happens when seagulls attack? ``It's a war zone, we are even seeing people
with mouth injuries''' Independent, 9 August 2017, at <www.independent.co.uk/
news/lon g_reads/ what-hap pens-when -seagull s-attack -its-a-w ar-zone-p eople-ar e-
even-getting-injuries-in-their-mouths-a7883676.html>.
8 `Woman injured in ``Hitchcock-style'' bird attack' Guardian, 10 July 2008, at
<www.theguardian.com/uk/2008/jul/10/1>.
9 BBC, `Gull attacks: David Cameron wants ``big conversation''' (17 July 2015), at
<www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-33573807>.
10 `Seagulls' debate, 621 H.C. Debs., cols. 73WH-97WH (7 February 2017).
11 See `Controlling Urban Seagulls' debate, 491 H.C. Debs., cols. 469±474 (23 April
2009); `Seagulls (Gloucester)' debate, 505 H.C. Debs., cols. 237WH±243WH (9
February 2010); `Seagulls (Coastal Towns)' debate, 534 H.C. Debs., cols. 142WH±
148WH (26 October 2011).
ß2019 The Author. Journal of Law and Society ß2019 Cardiff University Law School
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