A gull chick died after having been glued to a wall and left for maggots to crawl into its brain. Jennifer Steer, who tried to save the young bird's life, said she received a phone call from people who had discovered the gull chick glued to a wall by its head and wings.
Police had managed to free the bird, reports DevonLive. Jennifer said: "We had a phone call that this gull had been found in Exmouth and had been glued to the wall. I think the police had released it and let it go. The poor bird's head looked like it was bald, it was really hard and the skin was in almost patchwork and I think it had been pecked before.
"I put cream on it the night I got him and I let him walk and he's walking very slowly and then he'd trip over something and he's obviously not right."
Jennifer noticed the seagull's head was "crawling" with maggots. She received advice that they could be cleared out with the help of antiseptic spray. But the bird died a few hours later.
Jennifer said: " I got the dead skin off and it was lovely and clean but he was shaking his head a bit and the vet later confirmed that the maggots had probably got into his brain. A couple of hours later, he was gone, he was dead.
"I was really upset because they're innocent creatures. His wings were hanging down as well because they had got really stretched. It's horrible to see because his dignity was gone. I've never seen anything so horrible."