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Australian museum hires canine staff member to chase seagulls away

The National Maritime Museum in Australia has hired a new staff member, to chase away seagulls. B...
Newstalk
Newstalk

11.41 25 Aug 2016


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Australian museum hires canine...

Australian museum hires canine staff member to chase seagulls away

Newstalk
Newstalk

11.41 25 Aug 2016


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The National Maritime Museum in Australia has hired a new staff member, to chase away seagulls.

Bailey Haggarty - who holds the position of Assistant Director of Seagulls - is a two-year-old Border Collie.

He even posts his own blog on the museum's website. "I'm here because of seagulls," he writes.

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"When they are not stealing tourists' chips, they spend much of their time making a mess of our wharves and vessels."

"Seagull poo, I’ve learnt, is bad news for boats. It stains their paintwork and varnish, plus it’s a health hazard and unpleasant for our visitors."

Image: Australia National Maritime Museum

"Our staff spend many tedious hours constantly cleaning this muck away. They’ve tried various methods to scare off the gulls - ultrasonics, statues of birds of prey, humming line, sprinklers activated by motion sensors, or just hosing them."

"But then they discovered that other places had had success with dogs. A cunning plan was born, and I was adopted from a working dog rescue centre," Bailey adds.

Australia National Maritime Museum

His most recent post notes: "My enemies, the seagulls, have started to notice that I'm here to stay, and there aren’t as many as there used to be."

But it's not all plain sailing for this pooch.

In his blog post from July 30th, he said: "Sometimes I get into mischief. I found something deliciously smelly in the garden and proceeded to roll in it, which my human friends weren’t happy about."

"Three baths later, they said I still stank – it took more than a week for it to wear off. People didn’t pat me so much when I was smelly. Is that a coincidence, do you think?".

Even canine workers have woof days, too.


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