“Killing swans is a bad idea,” says Carl Safina (one of the most 100 Notable Conservationists of the 20th century).
In December 2013, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) released a Draft Management Plan which proposed the complete elimination of mute swans in New York State. The DEC later issued a revised management plan that calls for reducing the state’s population of 2,200 swans to 800 – this is unacceptable!
Thousands of New Yorkers submitted public comments to the DEC in opposition to its proposals, demonstrating unequivocally that New Yorkers want mute swans to be protected by our government, not slaughtered.
The rationales provided for eliminating these magnificent creatures are flawed, and numerous experts have spoken out in criticism of the supposed basis for the DEC’s plan. We shouldn’t kill off one animal population on the misguided belief that we are helping to save another, and certainly not, at the very least, without unequivocal evidence to support such extreme and irreversible action. ~ GooseWatch NYC
“This revised Management Plan appears to disregard the Legislature’s key requests – that of full documentation of the scientific basis for management decisions, future mute swan population projections and environmental damage (both current and projected) and less reliance on lethal management measures.”
Steve Englebright
