A woman from Caernarfon who campaigns for the rights of birds and calls on people in her community to treat pigeons better says she even keeps seagulls in her bathroom in her quest to make a difference. Retired antiques dealer Denise Theophilus, 69, is an avid campaigner and “rehabber” doing her best to help during the avian flu crisis while calling out big companies that neglect the birds, North Wales Live reports.
Denise feeds gulls daily, mostly down on the foreshore. Some of the things she claims to see there leave her appalled: gulls reportedly mown down by cyclists, maimed by slingshot, cut by broken bottles and hooked by carelessly discarded angling gear.
She talks darkly of rumours of birds being “tortured, mutilated and disembowelled” – though proof has been elusive. “Caernarfon simply isn’t interested in pigeons, gulls and birds in general,” she said. “They’re just regarded as rats with wings.
