Big Pine Key Fishing Lodge guests discover birds with beer cans around their necks in Florida Keys

Associated Press

BIG PINE KEY, Fla. (AP) -- Wildlife officials say a guest at the Big Pine Key Fishing Lodge found a pelican and a herring gull with Busch Light beer cans around their necks like collars.

The Miami Herald ( http://hrld.us/14nYo2p ) reports the guest used a Swiss Army knife to cut the ends of the cans on Monday, then called the Florida Keys Wildlife Rescue.

The group's director Maya Totman calls the incident "sickening."

Vogel told authorities the gull's head appeared to have been forced through the can. But the beer can was modified to fit around the pelican's neck.

Totman says it probably took two people to pull off this act. She says the gull was gasping for breath when Vogel found it.

Both birds are recovering at the center. But Totman says people are "really upset."

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Information from: The Miami Herald, http://www.herald.com