AR-News: (UK) ANIMAL LOVERS UNITE TO STOP ATTACKS ON SWANS

[Animalara2003 at aol.com]

this is devon
 

11:00 - 21 May 2004 
Neighbourhood Watch groups for swans are being set up to stop an increasing 
number of savage attacks on the birds.

PC Ray Adams said a number of self-styled neighbourhood action groups had 
sprung up in areas near where swans nest to maintain a vigilant lookout for 
heartless thugs.

At the weekend, a mother swan suffered a fatal attack in Exeter. She was one 
of six breeding pairs in the city, and nested on the banks of the Exe at 
Weirfield Road.

The swan died at the Taunton RSPCA centre, where she was treated for a leg 
injury. She had suffered a catalogue of abuse at the hands of local vandals, 
including being urinated on and having large objects thrown at her nest.

PC Adams said the horrific mistreatment was not an isolated incident.

He said: "Unfortunately there seems to be a minority of idiot yobs who take 
some sort of pleasure stoning swans, throwing skateboards at them and generally 
trying to inflict as much injury as they possibly can."

But he had been heartened by public response to the graceful creatures' 
plight. "Local people are rallying to the support of the breeding swans," he said.

"They have formed groups to keep an eye out and keep guard on the nests to 
make sure people are not mistreating the swans in any way."

He said residents in homes overlooking the nest, where the distraught male 
swan has been left to look after the cygnets alone, were keeping watch. But he 
did not expect the young birds to survive.

He said: "We are disgusted by the actions of these mindless thugs. I am sure 
I speak for most of Exeter when I say local people are fed up with it."

Swans, which mate for life, have suffered a sickening array of violent 
attacks over the past 12 months.

In March, staff at Mid Devon's Grand Western Canal Park threatened to take 
legal action against the tormentors of nesting swans.

And in the last year a swan deliberately targeted in a Saltash breeze block 
attack narrowly escaped death.

In Paignton, Torbay Wildlife Rescue Service offered a £3,000 reward for any 
information leading to the capture of a thug who beat a swan to death.





full story:
 
http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?command=newPage&nodeId=142718&contentPK=10041427     


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    "The day may come when the rest of the animal creation may acquire those 
rights which never could have been withholden from them but by the hand of
tyranny. - Jeremy Bentham 1748 - 1832 
The question is not can they REASON, nor can they TALK, but can they SUFFER?" 
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