A BIRD rescuer has spoken about her disgust at teens allegedly trying to hit baby gulls while on mopeds in Barrow.

A social media post claimed a group of teens were throwing fast food wrappers onto the ground at Hollywood Park to attract baby gulls before attempting to hit them.

Elisabeth Ashleigh, of Bardsea Bird Sanctuary, was angry but unsurprised by the incident.

She said: "Everytime you go to Barrow you see something - people just hate them so much don't they.

"I have never known so much cruelty in my life. The parents hate them, the kids hate them.

"They are cowards and bullies that love inflicting harm on defenceless creatures. What kind of mentality do these people have, what place on earth do these people have?

"Seagulls do a good job of cleaning up the streets after messy people."

Ms Ashleigh said gulls stand little chance when facing off against vehicles and are often not quick enough to take off.

She said: "A lot of these ones that are dead in the road are there because of people throwing rubbish out the window. Even a bit of paper, they'll go after it.

"The ones who get hit and do survive can't be saved anyway because they have open fractures.

"If it was a dog or a cat people would stop or try to avoid them but because it's a bird they think they don't have feelings - but of course they do, they feel pain and trauma.

"The birds remain fearful, they never forget or get over it completely. They have much longer memories than humans.

"It's a terrible shame that there are never any prosecutions and people seem to think its normal to treat animals like that.

"I think people are horrible. Unfortunately Barrow seems to have a terrible reputation for this sort of thing.

"These horrible people that do this sort of thing are capable of much worse, and will go on to do much worse too."