Stricken seabirds dying in 'refined mineral oil' on south coast, say scientists

“Oh Christ, now you've woken Charles up.”

“Apologies accepted charles, yes you are quite right, a dead bird is a dead bird, whether we choose to eat it or not. Game pie has always been one of my favourites.”

“My apologies; of course it's 'Sidney'.”

“Sydney are you not aware that it was quite common practice pre, during and after the war for farmers and country people to regularly shoot any songbirds that were attacking the blossom or the fruit in any orchards and turn them into pies for the table? . They were seen as a delicacy in those times. . Game is still eaten now of course as we both know.

Several of my now middle-aged children's grand parents and great grand parents quite regularly had songbirds in their diet. . Even now in my life's experience, people out in the sticks have not been averse to eating a couple of pigeons from the 'loft' for Saturday night supper.

The older ladies were quite capable of preparing those meals and many still are. . Horses were mainly working animals of course, but no doubt many that weren't too ropey found their way into the food chain.”

“With the pressure on the food chain from an ever increasing world population eating wild birds (we already eat some) and eating horse meat (as they do in europe) may well be the future, however distasteful old ladies my find it.”

“Sidney Nuff your quite stupid and sometimes cruel contributions to many of the stories that are shown here has put me off posting in the comment HE's online comment section ever again. It seems there are only a small group of the same names appearing everywhere anyway. I am now closing my account as you've brought it down to a very sad status, which it shouldn't be.”

“Wrap it in cellophane and put it on the shelves at Tesco next to the horse meat burgers.”

“more of the millions victims of crude oil drilling operations. some people are not aware that drilling for crude oil creates constant ocean pollution. EVeryday massive oil leaks pollute the oceans and people are never the wiser. bp have hushed up oil spills just as bad as the gulf of mexico disaster. what annoys me is people are ignorant to the fact that oil drilling cannot be done without major spillage. our entire economy is being driven by worthless products that nobody needs simply to line shelves. We need to start using more non crude oil products like corn oil plastic and natural mineral oil plastic. you could make hemp oil plastic. more people should use electric vehicles for short journeys and the petrol stations should start battery exchange stations with lifepo4 batteries for e cars and e bikes. THe problem is though that would harm petrol sales and that is what they don't want. its all about money to these people. power has gone to their heads.”

“This brings back memories of the Torrey Canyon disaster in the late 1960s, when seabirds in Cornwall were covered in oil after the ship floundered. My late husband was among many soldiers who took part in the rescue of the poor creatures. However this is beginning to look like a deliberate act of pollution and I hope they catch those responsible and severely punish them.”

“If this was a picture of chicken in sunflower oil would anyone be complaining.”