Animal rights activists protest use of swans in Stratford

Should the City of Stratford keep its swans? Animal rights activists are saying 'no'.

Group 'End Zoos Canada' wants the city to release birds on Lake Victoria and bring them to sanctuary

Peggy Lam · CBC News ·
Protesters hold signs at the corner of Ontario and Erie Street in downtown Stratford, Ont. (Peggy Lam/CBC)

Animal rights activists are calling on the city of Stratford to release the swans on Lake Victoria, saying the birds are kept in cruel conditions by being in an unnatural habitat. 

The activists staged a protest on the corner of Ontario and Erie Street in downtown Stratford on Sunday afternoon. 

"Their wings are clipped, which is a surgical procedure called pinioning and disallows the flight feathers to be developed when they are small," said Stephen Perin, the president of End Zoos Canada. Stephen Perin is the president of End Zoos Canada. (Peggy Lam/CBC)

"This action creates them to be prisoners of these waterways for the viewership of tourists," he said. 

Christine Campbell, another protestor, said the swans are migratory birds from Europe and Australia, used in a parade every year, which forces them to walk upright and puts them under a lot of stress. Christine Campbell is from Cambridge, Ont. She says "birds should not be paraded down the streets." (Peggy Lam/CBC)

"They're not here to be paraded down the street, for people to look at them and gawk at them," she said.

"These are individual beings. We need to leave them alone." 

Perin is asking the city to bring them to a waterfowl sanctuary and let them "die naturally." 

"Since municipal taxes are currently used to sustain these animals, the exact same thing can be done at a waterfowl sanctuary," he said.

City's response  

The City of Stratford said the swans are "well-taken care of." 

Quin Malott, manager of parks and forestry, said the city had to pinion the birds' wings in order to obtain a license from the Ministry of Environment. 

"Because they're a non-Indigenous species, we have to be sure they're not procreating too much, so they have to be clipped," he said. 

Malott said the birds also do not undergo stress. A mute swan lands at the Titicus Reservoir in Purdys, New York. (Eduardo Munoz/Reuters)

"I don't think there's too much in terms of stress because of the tourists," he said. "If it was, you wouldn't have so many Canada geese or ducks." 

Malott said the city will not be creating a bird sanctuary for the swans. 

"We're not a bird sanctuary. We have a very good program where we keep them well-wintered," he said, adding that Stratford only has mute swans. 

Currently, there are 21 swans in the city of Stratford and the average life span of a mute swan is 16 years. 

Perin said End Zoos Canada will continue protesting until the swans are no longer on Lake Victoria.