Gull found in Miyagi with dart lodged in its head

The jerk who did this ought to have the same thing done to him.

The prefectural government is considering capturing the bird

Don't consider it. Do it.

Looks like its stuck in its ear?

a possible violation of the wild birds protection act.

!!!!!!!!

Or perhaps just plain animal cruelty??!!!

A paper dart?  what's that5?

also good to know what a local 8 year old thought of this.

I have never seen a gull in such a state.

pretty sure none of us have

I think it is just lodged under its feathers which are very tough and strong at the base.

I remember in high school 2 kids were suspended for giving stomach laxatives to seagulls which killed them as they began to fly off. The person who does these type of things to animals should be arrested or closely monitored because they made do bad things to fellow humans in the future.

How was this done? Did someone catch the seagull, and insert that dart with their hands or was it fired from some kind of gun?

The bird continues to eat and fly, and does not appear weakened.

A dart? It looks like a lollypop stick stuck to the back of the bird's head. Maybe they could capture the bird, and solve this mystery?

Maybe a whale got tired of gulls pecking holes in its back. Seriously though, I had the same questions as posters above. What is a paper dart, and how is it fired?

Ah, a quick search on the J web found these images:

https://search.yahoo.co.jp/image/search?p=%E7%B4%99%E8%A3%BD%E3%81%AE%E5%90%B9%E3%81%8D%E7%9F%A2%E3%81%A8%E3%81%AF&search.x=1&tid=top_ga1_sa&ei=UTF-8&aq=-1&oq=%E7%B4%99%E8%A3%BD%E3%81%AE%E5%90%B9%E3%81%8D%E7%9F%A2%E3%81%A8%E3%81%AF&ai=EF7ES8KxSXep0UHAoXwhxA&ts=14877&fr=top_ga1_sa

This is funnel type and launched by usually aluminum pipe. In the 70-ies when we were kids we played a lot with those kind of stuff. Nobody from my friends went blind - from today's perspective we were lucky thinking of what we've done. And yes - we chased animals. But back then even women and people didn't have wrights... We also didn't have bullies and bullied - we just lived in everyday fear that if we go to play in the school yard bigger boys will beat us and take our ball...

I'm not a PETA supporter and I eat animal flesh for food, including birds. However, toying with and torturing animals like this is juvenile, stupid, churlish and wrong. Someone needs to find the brat responsible for this and punish him/her.

When I was in the military service I knew some boorish geeks who boasted about crucifying frogs on popsicle stick crosses and of putting mice in microwave ovens and turning on the heat to the max - for kicks.

There's no excuse for this sadistic behavior and I hope whoever did this to the seagull gets punished before that person starts abusing people later in life. This stupid behavior has to stop somewhere.

okay you see your legless gulls at the beach and think nothing of it. even 'accidentally' dropped a ball of wasabi near my feet, gull gobbled it up and then started dry-wretching poor thing, but all good after a few mins.

but to actively shoot a projectile at one, not on. i strongly agree with 8-year-old Minkai Matsuo.

Makes me sick...no hope for humanity...I hope they are able to help this poor bird

Gulls like the huge crows here are a nuisance, perhaps someone wanted to take matters into their own hands ?