A British tourist has sparked a furious online backlash after he posted a video in which he appears to feed a seagull a chip laced with the drug ketamine while holidaying in Ibiza.
Josh Greenwood, from Huddersfield, posted a video on Twitter accompanied by the caption, “The lads over here in Ibiza have got sally the seagull f*cked up of a chip with some KETchup on it!”
The footage shows someone on a balcony emptying white crystals from a clear bag onto a chip, placing it on a ledge and calling the seagull over.
The gull then flies down and carries the chip off in its mouth, much to the delight of the lads behind the camera who scream with laughter.
However, after the video was posted on an Ibiza Workers Facebook group, animal lovers were outraged and many dubbed the prank “cruel”, and Greenwood was soon “named and shamed” by one user.
Greenwood has since denied that the substance he put on the chips was the horse tranquilliser turned party drug ketamine, claiming it was actually salt.
Writing on Facebook, he said:
My mate put salt on a chip and a seagull ate it while I filmed. It’s called a joke. I have my mother on Twitter do you think I would publicly post something like that if it was what it’s made out to be?
It’s called sarcasm! Making a joke out of it because of people like you overreacting to something that wasn’t even what it was made out to be.
Greenwood’s solicitor Paul Booth reiterated the stance that it was salt put on the chip, not ketamine, calling the moment “a silly joke by a young man on holiday with his mates, who never intended it to be viewed by anyone outside his circle of friends”.
In an official statement, the RSPB condemned anyone who gives drugs to birds.
Tim Melling, senior conservation officer for RSPB north England, said:
Like with all drugs their effects differ according to body size. If you give something to a baby, for example, the effects would be devastating and a gull is smaller than a baby. Ketamine could lead to muscle paralysis, causing it to crash out of the sky which could cause it to break a leg or wing.
It could cause loss of consciousness. It could fly into a car causing a road traffic accident, and the drug can cause bladder problems, all of which could cause long term effects on a bird. Ketamine is illegal for a reason and it’s totally irresponsible and something we strongly condemn.
