Fate of Sheepshead Bay’s mute swans up in the air
It’s another swan song for Sheepshead Bay.
Despite overwhelming opposition from Brooklynites, animal activists and legislators, a bill that would protect the area’s beloved mute swans — slated for extermination by the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), which has declared them a “prohibited invasive species” — has been vetoed by Governor Andrew Cuomo for the second time in two years.
“Obviously this isn’t the outcome we were hoping for,” said Assemblymember Steven Cymbrowitz, a member of the Environmental Conservation Committee and the bill’s sponsor, “especially after the bill passed both houses overwhelmingly two years in a row and so many advocates fought hard on the legislation’s behalf.”