In a perfect world, NJ seagull killer would get a medal

Look, this isn’t going to make me any friends, OK? I get that. But in a perfect world there would be some unalienable rights.

Like the right to set foot on sand without being charged a beach fee. The right to not have someone set up five feet from you when the beach is wide open

And how about the right to take matters into your own hands if a rat with wings comes after your kid’s food?

A 29-year-old Cape May man was visiting North Wildwood with his little girl and presumably minding his own business trying to show his daughter a good time. The thing that seems to top every list of beach pet peeves happened. An annoying seagull aggressively swooped in and went after the little girl’s food.

These birds are often encouraged by jerks who go out of their way to feed them, turning seagulls into a highly aggressive nuisance. Shore towns have dealt with the problem for years. In Ocean City, the local government even hired a company to bring in live raptors to go after the seagulls to keep them, forgive the pun, at bay.

Now I don’t know quite how it went down but this dad, Franklin Ziegler, was having none of it when this bird came after his daughter and her French fries. No doubt the kid was scared. The father somehow got ahold of the seagull and killed it, according to authorities. Police say he decapitated it.

Authorities say Morey’s Piers workers told them the man came up to them asking for a trash bag holding the dead bird. Police were called and they say Zeigler was recorded on a body camera admitting to killing the bird when it came after his kid’s food.

He’s been charged with third-degree animal cruelty along with resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.

Yes, l understand we have a federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act that makes it “unlawful at any time, by any means or in any manner, to pursue, hunt, take, capture, kill, attempt to take, capture, or kill ... any migratory bird.” There was even a man who ran afoul of this law when a seagull came after his food and he says he simply flailed his leg trying to shoo it and accidentally kicked it. He didn’t even kill it yet had to pay a hefty fine.

But is the status quo right? Should this be illegal in cases where the seagull is aggressive or even worse, there’s an entire aggressive swarm? Is there no credit given for the paternal instinct of coming to your daughter’s aid?

If they’re going to charge this man with a crime instead of giving him the medal I say he deserves in a perfect world, then they had better toughen the laws against feeding these seagulls too. Make that the same level of crime because these are the people setting this up to happen.