Local pols and activists cry foul on DEC plan to “eliminate” mute swans
There will be no swan song for New York’s mute swan population if Brooklyn and New York politicians and activists have anything to say about it.
Assemblymember Steven Cymbrowitz of Sheepshead Bay—where the graceful, largely silent swans have been a familiar and fond fixture in the waterfront community for decades—has introduced legislation (A.8790) that would place a two-year ban on the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s (DEC) plan to label mute swans as a “prohibited invasive species” and then exterminate them all by the year 2025.
His bill joins State Senator Tony Avella’s Senate bill (S.6589) in calling for the DEC to “examine the issue further” and consider “using a humane alternative” such as those practiced by the states of Vermont, Rhode Island and Connecticut.