3 gulls found with jagged beer cans around necks

(AP) -- Three seagulls with jagged beer-can collar slipped around their necks have been discovered in the San Francisco area.

Rebecca Dmytryk of the Moss Landing-based WildRescue group says the organization first received photographs in September showing a gull with a sliced-open Budweiser can stuck around its neck.

She told the San Jose Mercury News there are confirmed sightings of other gulls with jagged beer can collars at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, a beach in Half Moon Bay and other undisclosed locations in the Bay Area. She says the collars prevent the birds from eating or grooming.

The rescue group is now trying to find the birds and those responsible for what Dmytryk calls a sick level of animal abuse.