Blind Woman Afraid To Go Outside With Guide Dog After ‘Repeated Seagull Attacks'

A blind woman and her guide dog are too scared to leave their home because of sustained attacks from a pair of seagulls.

Megan Paul, 24, and her four-year-old dog Tate have been subjected to harrowing attacks by two gulls in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.

She said the birds have repeatedly swooped down on them, squawking and flapping their wings - and that they have even tried to peck out the dog’s eyes.

Ms Paul says she no longer takes the bus because of the attacks.

Instead, she has to pay £32 each day for taxis from her front door to the officer where she works in Gloucester city centre.

Ms Paul, a council worker who was born without sight and is registered blind, said the birds became aggressive in May this year.

“It started a few months ago,” she said.

“I was standing at the lights at a crossing, waiting to cross on the way to work.

“A seagull flew very low over me and Tate. I didn’t think anything of it but the same thing happened the next day and the day after.

“I thought, ‘This is scary’. They were flying so low they were touching my head which was unnerving.”

She then asked her boyfriend to accompany her to the bus stop, next to a busy food court near the Brewery Quarter.

“He could see that as we were approaching the food court, these two seagulls were flying around,” she said.

“They saw us coming and were getting more threatened and making these really weird, nasty call noises which sounds like an evil laugh

“As I got closer they went completely silent and started to swoop at us.”

Tate, a Labrador/Retriever cross, doesn’t bark when the birds attack but he has developed a fear of them, said Ms Paul.

“It happens every time we go outside. They make these threatening call noises and follow me and Tate,” she said.

“We have both developed a real fear of them. I’m completely on edge whenever I go outside.

“I absolutely hate them and I’m terrified of them. They are out of control.”

(Pictures: SWNS)