No prosecution in bird-beating case

The Orange County District Attorney’s office has decided not to press charges against a tourist from Kansas who was accused of beating a seagull after it went after his ice cream Dec. 31 on the boardwalk at Main Beach, D.A. spokeswoman Farah Emami said Tuesday.

Dragan Djuric, 50, of Wichita, told police he was walking with his wife when the couple was attacked by a pair of seagulls intent on eating their ice cream cones. He picked up a stick and beat one of the birds so severely it had to be euthanized at the Huntington Beach Wetlands and Wildlife Station. The other bird could not be found.

Laguna Beach police issued a misdemeanor citation of animal cruelty and Djuric returned to Kansas.

The specie of gull involved in the incident, a Heermann’s gull, is known to be very aggressive and to steal food from pelicans’ pouches and other larger birds, according to the Audobon Society.

A photo of the beaten gull showed a broken wing bone.