New York State Is Planning a Massive Mute Swan Kill. Signatures Needed
Stop New York's Mute Swan Management Plan
NYS is planning on killing two-thirds or more of New Yorks mute swans, including the entire upstate population, and the DEC would force strict control over every swan. Here are the chilling specifics, obscured in the details:
- Free-living mute swans would be killed throughout upstate New York.
- In places such as New York City and Long Island, DEC would allow some mute swans to remain, but they would have to be penned, pinioned (amputatedto prevent flight), and sterilized or have their reproduction permanently controlled.
- No cygnets (baby mute swans) would be allowedin New York State. All eggs will be tampered with by oiling, or addling (shaking) so that developing chicks will die or suffocate.
Mute swans are not an invasive species:this term should be reserved for species causing drastic, harmful and deleterious effects. But mute swans are not environmentally harmful, rather,they are beautiful, majestic parts of our environment.
Please take a moment and sign the petition. Ourwildlifeneeds to be protected
You can find the link to the petition here:
https://www.change.org/p/new-york-state-department-of-environmental-conservation-stop-new-york-state-s-mute-swan-management-plan
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Kavika
9 years agoThere are thousands of cases where MuteSwans have attacked and injured white people. It's just another case of whiteon white crime. It must be stopped!!!!!
Petition signed.
seeder
Perrie Halpern R.A.
9 years agoThere has been no clear answer about this Robert. According to CBS NY news, NYS says:
They were introduced to North America to grace the ponds of parks and estates in the 1800s. But, while theyre often considered symbols of romance and tranquility, they can cause serious problems, behaving aggressively toward people, destroying submerged aquatic vegetation, polluting water, displacing native birds, displacing native wildlife species and even posing hazards to aircraft.
Yet the article goes on to say:
New York states mute swan population is estimated at about 2,200, mostly on Long Island, around New York City and in the lower Hudson Valley.
Which is hardly invasive.
The real issue is that mute swans can get aggressive if you approach their young.
As forenvironmentalimpact :
As Assemblymember Cymbrowitzstated,"The plan still seeks to reduce theswan population by almost two-thirds despite highly disputed evidence."
Indeed, the DEC's plan to drastically reduce the state's muteswanpopulation continues to rely on outdated and immaterial research - new studies areneeded to justify any control or killing. We remain strongly opposed to designation of muteswansas an invasive species, a subjective determination,and we remain concerned with the DEC's objectives to completely eliminate free-ranging muteswansfrom New York State, as well as the proposal's statements abouthow such a population reduction might be achieved.
What makes NY such a lovely place to live is our local wildlife. I live in a village where we have mute swans in our local pond. They are beautiful birds that we enjoy.
This is Gerry Park in Roslyn with a mute goose. I live in the hill behind.
There is one goose to pile of gulls, who can also be aggressive. I happen to love the pond's swans.
seeder
Perrie Halpern R.A.
9 years agoIn the Roslyn News, it is said that the people who complain the most are the golfers, where the swans sometimes settle down on ponds. I am sorry if they disturb their game, but I also don't think we need to cater to them either.
That article, and DEC says they are an invasive species. But 2200 in the state after more than 100 years wouldn't seem a great problem.
Exactly. And for the beauty that they bring us, I feel that this is an over the top reaction to please a few.
Kavika
9 years agoGolfers are complaining!!!!! Wow, this from a group that is known for self inflicted FLOG. (golf spelled backwards)
Do they have some sort of S&M thing going on!!!!
seeder
Perrie Halpern R.A.
9 years agoAlso, Swans cause global warming.
Of course, when they fart. Major issue.
seeder
Perrie Halpern R.A.
9 years agoYou know I actually caught one once. He charges me for being too close to the babes... so I just grabbed him. He settled down really quick.
Larry Hampton
9 years agoStrange that they say theywant tocull 2/3 of the swans, yet the plan laid out ...
- Free-living mute swans would be killed throughout upstate New York.
- In places such as New York City and Long Island, DEC would allow some mute swans to remain, but they would have to be penned, pinioned (amputatedto prevent flight), and sterilized or have their reproduction permanently controlled.
- No cygnets (baby mute swans) would be allowedin New York State. All eggs will be tampered with by oiling, or addling (shaking) so that developing chicks will die or suffocate.
...will end up killing them off completely.
Petition signed. Thanks for bringing this to our attention.
jennilee
9 years ago
Petey Coober
9 years agoThese swans are being discriminated against for 2 reasons : They are white ; They are mute .
The squeaky black swan gets all the attention !
seeder
Perrie Halpern R.A.
9 years agoJennilee,
That is what the DEC said, but here from an article from the NYT about this issue:
Mute swans are defensive, not aggressive, their advocates say. If people carelessly encroach on their nests and young, they should expect to be unequivocally rebuffed. If the birds have an appetite for subaquatic vegetation, it may have local effects, but as they compose about half of 1 percent of New Yorks more than 400,000 waterfowl, the impact on the states ecosystems is minor. And if, as the state claims but has difficulty demonstrating, mute swans really displace New Yorks native birds, there should be a debate about the criteria used to value one species over another.
The states management plan is based on a D.E.C. study that produced some markedly inconclusive science. The threat from New Yorks swans appears largely speculative: The studys authors base their assumptions on programs to control growing numbers of mute swans in Michigan and the Chesapeake Bay , yet as the report itself shows, the birds populations in New York State are relatively small and currently either steady or in decline. Its hard to resist concluding that the startling plan to eliminate the swans statewide is a case of bureaucratic overreach. Swan lovers are unlikely to be placated by the proposal to license small numbers of clipped birds on private lands.
Theres no question that species designated as nonnative can affect our ecosystems, sometimes changing them in ways that are expensive and undesirable. Dramatic examples abound zebra mussels, cane toads, kudzu. But as more and more research is demonstrating, nonnative is an ideological grab bag of a category whose members are varied in their impacts and diverse in their contributions.
This makes no sense and it also seems barbaric. Why not addle the eggs of an area that seems out of balance? Eradication is horrific! Your...
Nonnative species may be beneficial, rather than harmful. They may also be well integrated into their environment, particularly if, like the mute swan and the honeybee another European transplant, brought here in the early 17th century they have been resident in their host ecosystems for a substantial amount of time.
Indeed, given the limited scale of their impact, its difficult to imagine that mute swans would be considered a nuisance if they were also considered native. Under these conditions, we should carefully examine the evidence offered by New York State in support of its plan and consider whether it is adequate to condemn a much-loved species and allow its wholesale killing.
Theres a larger issue here. The real environmental problems faced by New York State are created not by birds, but by people. In the nearly 150 years that the mute swan has been among us, it has witnessed a radical decline in the extent of the states wildlife habitat and in the quality of its water and soil. The loss of wetlands has slowed and even reversed since the low point of the 1970s, but splintering habitat, sea-level rise, legislative loopholes, untreated sewage discharge and contaminated runoff from agriculture, and adjacent development continue to threaten these vital ecosystems.
Because of their limited diet, mute swans are a sentinel species, concentrating contaminants in their livers and revealing the presence of chemical toxicities in fresh water. Rather than eliminating swans, we should pay attention to their struggle to survive and what it can tell us about the state of our state.
pat wilson
9 years agoHa ha, HEADLINE: Perrie Halpern attacked by murderous swan, she turns the tables and throttles the swan !!!
Jerry Verlinger
9 years agoMute swans are not an invasive species:this term should be reserved for species causing drastic, harmful and deleterious effects. But mute swans are not environmentally harmful, rather,they are beautiful, majestic parts of our environment.
I don't know where that comment came from, but it is contrary to everything I have found regarding Mute Swans. These swans are an invasive species and are having a negative impact on the environment. The knee jerk reaction by some groups to the killing of any living thing is typical.
According to a December 2013 report by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC): (my emphasis )
The Division of Fish, Wildlife and Marine Resources (DFWMR), adopted a policy in 1993 that recognized mute swans as an undesirable species in habitats used by native fish and wildlife. Although the policy advocated population control and mitigation of impacts, it has not been aggressively implemented to date.
The mute swan was introduced to North America in the late 19th century. Recently, it has been widely viewed as an invasive species because of its rapidly increasing numbers and adverse effects on other waterfowl and native ecosystems.
For example, a study of population sizes .... found that mute swan numbers were increasing at an average rate of at least 10% per year, doubling the population every seven to eight years. Several studies have concluded that mute swans severely reduce densities of submerged aquaticvegetation (SAV) where they occur .
Originally the plan was to eliminate almost all Mute Swans in the State, however on March 9, 2015 the New York Times published an articlesaying;
"In response to public pressure, state environmental officials on Monday released a revised plan to thin out the invasive mute swan population in New York. While emphasizing non-deadly control measures, the new plan would still allow the killing of the birds."
The revision comes after a blueprint issued early last year by the State Department of Environmental Conservation that had called for the abolition of almost all of the states 2,200 mute swans. The large, graceful birds were introduced from Europe in the late 1800s and have become a nuisance destroying the habitats of native ducks and geese, polluting waters with their feces and even attacking people. But the swans, a symbol of romantic love, are prized ornaments in some city and suburban parks.
Conservationists and even some birding groups had embraced the original plan , which would have relied on shooting and gassing the birds, but animal-rights activists, elected officials and others denounced it.
The new plan shifts the focus from destroying the swans to reducing their negative impact .
As for this petition, I signed it, but they are going tohaveto do something about the problem. The original solution is obviously not an option, but the alternative plan is expensive and the money is going to have to come from someplace.
"In acknowledging the backlash against the original goal, officials pledged to use nonlethal methods where practical. But they cautioned that alternative techniques for controlling the population, such as clipping the wings of birds in parks and oiling eggs so they do not hatch, were expensive and would require a commitment of funding and assistance. [NYTimes]
What is needed is a petition to raise the funding needed to implement the alternative techniques.
Another possiblesolution could be, as they diminish the Mute Swan population, they may be able to replace them with Trumpeter Swan found in the Great Lakes and southern Canada regions. The question would be; Is the Trumpeter less invasive than the Mute?
seeder
Perrie Halpern R.A.
9 years agoJerry,
They are an invasive species, but all the studies that have been done, have been questionable at best, if they harm the other species that they live among. And I am not having a knee jerk reaction here. When NYC made the park system that included Central Park and Prospect Park, some idiot had the idea to introduce every bird mentioned in Shakespeare's plays, including the starling. It is a nasty invasive bird that actually has had a terrible affect on many other birds, with the tiny downy owl being almost wiped out by these ugly pests and are known for spreading disease among live stock and humans. Here it is clear that they have made massive problems yet because it would cost too much money to rid ourselves of this pervasive bird, nothing is being done.
Until we have a reliable study, I truly feel that a 2,000 swans hardly impact their environment as much as over 2 million starlings.
Kavika
9 years agoI'm sure that you do Robert. I would betyou area great supporter of the ''snakeheads'', another invasive species that does it's best to kill off the indigenous population.
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THE New York DEC study concluding in a plan to kill mute swans is New York tax money ill spent. Some years back my friends in the Audubon...
I find it simply unbelievable that some governmental agency would have the gall to apparently decide to get rid of approximately 2,200...