Gull freed of beer-can collar - more need help

One Western gull was freed over the weekend from the shaft of a Budweiser can that someone apparently shoved around its neck, but a handful more are still flying around the Bay Area wearing aluminum collars that threaten their lives.

The heads of WildRescue of Moss Landing briefly captured the juvenile bird on the San Francisco State University campus on Saturday, allowing them to cut off the beer container with scissors. The brown gull was declared in good health and released, marking the second victory in a perplexing case of animal cruelty.

As many as five gulls have been spotted with beer cans around their necks since September. The number of cases - and the consistent use of a cut-apart Budweiser - points to human culprits, said Rebecca Dmytryk, director of the wildlife emergency response group.

"It's not like it was an accident," she said. "It was a very intentional and malicious act."

The jagged cans force the birds to adjust how they eat, but exposure is the rescuers' chief concern. Because the animals aren't able to properly preen, their feathers lose their warmth and waterproofness, leaving them susceptible to the elements.

"The can will kill them eventually, in a very slow way," Dmytryk said.

A concerned citizen spotted the bird on the campus last month and reported it to WildRescue. Dmytryk then encouraged the person to spend several weeks gaining the animal's trust with daily feedings, because the beer-can victims have proven skittish around humans following their ordeal.

The person, whom WildRescue declined to name, helped lure the bird into a trap on Saturday. WildRescue used a similar strategy to liberate a bird from its aluminum shackle in November.

The organization received word of the first case of a collared gull in Half Moon Bay in September. Since then, the organization has received reports of sightings on Alcatraz Island, in Fremont, Berkeley and Stinson Beach, and at Fisherman's Wharf and Lake Merced in San Francisco.

WildRescue is offering $6,500 for information that helps find those responsible. Wounding, capturing or killing a wild bird is a federal crime under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and can carry a misdemeanor fine of up to $15,000.

E-mail James Temple at jtemple@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page C - 2 of the San Francisco Chronicle