OK... as a wildlife biologist, I can't help but comment.
First off, the problem is not the fault of the birds. So please don't hate them, or treat them cruelly. Try placing the blame where it truly belongs.
Gulls are natural scavengers. They play an important role in the ecosystem. The reason that they are seen in PA and Ohio (sometimes remarkably far from open waters) in greater numbers during this time of year, is because they migrate inland on a seasonal basis. Unlike some bird species which migrate from North to South, the gulls typically migrate to where they can most easily find food--during Summer that is the coastline and near other large bodies of water, and during Winter that is more often inland. Gulls will congregate where ever there is a sustained food source--hence the numbers of gulls often seen near garbage dumps, or parking lots where there are dumpsters used by food establishments.
Enter the human element at Disney. Gulls are drawn there because of the ongoing food supply--if the food wasn't so readily available, they wouldn't stick around for long. Yes, there will always be the occassional dropped food item. But that in and of itself wouldn't lead to the undesirable behaviors many of the posters on this thread complained about. A lot of the problem is a direct result of the birds having been 'trained' to behave the way they do.
Intentional, or not, people at WDW have been training the gulls to steal food. The big problem is not the birds themselves, but the people who choose to feed them, particularly when offering them food items right off their plates or out of hand. How do you think a wild bird that would naturally tend to just scavenge for 'dead stuff' learned to swoop down and grab a fry or hotdog out of mid-air? Someone tossed them food, or fed them the same from their extended hand, and basically in doing so taught the gulls that this type of behavior was highly rewarding. Animals tend to repeat behaviors that are rewarding, and abandon those behaviors that are not.
So, like most everyone else, I do not like the bold behavior of the gulls that are currently stealing food from guests at WDW. But I know that it is not the birds themselves who are at fault, and I don't consider them inherently 'nasty'. It's the irresponsible people who find it so amussing to teach the gulls these behaviors who are to blame. Education will go a lot further towards resolving this problem than intentionally harming the birds ever would.
