Carl Alan Michelle, 54, pleaded guilty to one charge of ill-treating an animal when he appeared in the Dunedin District Court yesterday.
The court heard that on Wednesday last week, Michelle was in the Octagon sitting on the seats near the Robbie Burns statue.
Seagulls were hanging around his feet.
He suddenly grabbed one and killed it by battering its head into the concrete seat, then pulled its head off.
The defendant then put the dead seagull in a rubbish bin.
Michelle told his lawyer he was intoxicated on the night and struggled to explain his actions.
“He doesn’t have a clear memory, but thinks the seagull tried to eat some of his food,” the lawyer said.
He said his client’s offending was “gross”.
The lawyer took the highly unorthodox step of applying for name suppression for himself, saying he did not want to receive hate comments online for being connected to the case and that publication would cause him undue hardship.
Judge Dominic Flatley granted the order.
The defendant pleaded guilty on his first appearance, took full responsibility for the crime and would accept any sentence the court imposed, his lawyer stressed.
Judge Flatley said the offending was “appalling”.
“I can’t really find words to describe how people will feel when they read about this,” he said.
The judge convicted Michelle and ordered him to donate $2000 to the Dunedin Wildlife Hospital.
The maximum penalty for the charge is five years’ prison and a $100,000 fine.
