Our Young Swan was badly injured today.
As you may recall, the rescue cygnet was deposited at Niles Pond about ten months ago. Local residents Lyn Fonzo and Skip Hadden had been watching out for him and feeding him regularly, when he became frozen in the ice last fall. Lyn and Dan Harris rescued the Young Swan, and Lyn cared for him all winter long, feeding him and providing fresh bedding and water daily in a custom-made swan sanctuary.
Several weeks ago the Young Swan was released back to Niles Pond. Lyn has not yet seen him fly, not because of injury, but we think he simply does not know that he is a swan. Many species of birds imprint on the first thing they see upon hatching and when this little guy was found he was without parents.
The Young Swan has not been adapting well, and has been seen wandering around the Pond, by foot, and sitting quietly in the yards of neighboring homes.
Mr. Swan gave the Young Swan a tremendous thrashing today, as witnessed by several people, pounding his head against the ground and causing him to bleed. We can’t hold this behavior against Mr. Swan, he is just doing what swans do naturally, and that is to defend their territory, especially from other males.
Lyn volunteered to take the Swan back to her swan sanctuary while a new home is identified. Very unfortunately, it was determined that the Young Swan be placed in the OCEAN. The Young Swan has never swam in, or for that matter even seen, the ocean, and he cannot fly well. The excuse was that Mass Wildlife rules state that if an animal is not visibly injured it has to be returned to the wild. However, our understanding is that Mass Wildlife guidelines do not pertain to non-native species and to pets. The Swan’s caretakers were begging to keep the swan safe and not dump him on the beach, repeating that the swan would be cared for, yet, despite their pleas, he was taken to Niles Beach and released there.
He is currently swimming around and around in circles off of Niles Beach, in the harbor. We hope at some point tomorrow he will come to shore, where he can be recaptured and placed in a safe environment.
Please write and let us know if you know of a swan rehabilitator or potential long term swan caretaker.
Alone in the harbor with no ability to escape danger or to defend himself.
We hope he stays close to shore and out of the path of boats.
Good Morning Gloucester 
Who determined that the swan be placedin the ocean? This mkes zero sense.
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I’m very upset that the Gloucester animal control officer completely disregarded pleas not to dump the somewhat helpless swan into the ocean, versus allowing the young swan to be cared for!
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This is not very good care the wild life people or whomever decided to do this . Although there may be no visible signs of an injury it could very well be something else . I sure hope he is caught again and saved sounds like he was quite happy before the other humans stepped in .
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This swan should have been left alone last winter. Although good intentioned, you are prolonging his inevitable fate wildlife should be left alone
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That is not helpful. Whether you are right or not.. if you were in a burning building, you would not stop to figure out what you should’ve done differently to avoid a fire.. you focus on the now
And now the concern currently is how to help the bird, not to criticize and “shoulda woulda coulda..”
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Nonsense, living in Gloucester, you witness seagulls frequently injured or struggling- they die. It’s nature. You’ve hurt this swan by removing it from nature, now it can’t fend for itself.
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I have seen lobstermen removing hooks and lures from injured gulls, whales saved from entanglements, ducks rescued from storm drains, Piping Plovers being rescued from the brink of extinction by concerned citizens all along the East Coast…we help the wild creatures that we can The Young Swan was deposited at Niles Pond last summer, unfortunately without a clear idea of the implications and without a clear plan as to its rehabilitation back to the wild. The care of the swan fell on Lyn Fonzo’s shoulders and she, with friends of the Cape Ann swans have done the best they possibly could to help the Young Swan readjust to life in the wild. At this point, he needs safe sanctuary, like the Franklin Park Zoo as commenter Andrea wrote.
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What is going on with animal control? How can they do this in good conscience and call themselves supporters and protectors of wildlife? This is cruel, inhumane, and totally unnecessary! They should be ashamed of themselves and do everything they possibly can to help get that swan into a safe space.
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The control officer should have listened to the care takers for the best interest of this now helpless bird. The city should now help rescue the bird for their blunder.
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The swan needs to be returned to someone who can take care of him. This was a very poor decision to place him in the ocean.
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Each year a certain amount of the young that are produced do not make it to the second year. Humans seem to have a hard time with death. Nature NEVER uses something only once. If the swan dies, other life forms THAT DEPEND ON DEATH will eat this bird to survive. It reminds me of the hen duck swimming along the marsh with her young, teaching them how to find food to survive. At the same time, a vixen fox is leading her kits along the edge of the shore showing them how to kill ducks to survive. At the same time a coyote is leading her young and teaching them how to kill to survive.
It is just the circle of life. The person who posted and said we should have left it alone to start with is right. Nature works if left alone.
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An unknown kind person rescued this swan from the road, he was a few days old and alone in the middle of a busy road. The swan then went to a wildlife rehabber and was kept in captivity for appx 5 months. The “un-sexed” swan was then released into a pond with a resident male swan by said “certified wildlife rehabber”. The resident, me, was asked to look after and feed the swan as he wasn’t able to care for himself. I did everything the “wildlife rehabber” told me to do. Swan froze in the pond, I was ASKED to help him and I volunteered time, money, etc to give him a safe home for the winter until he could be released back into the pond – per said “wildlife rehabber” . The swan was in my care for 6 months. This swan has been cared for by humans for the first year of his life from the start. The swan has never been a “wild swan”. This is not wildlife. He is a helpless bird cared for by humans for his entire life and now dumped in the ocean by Gloucester Animal Control. He is now scared, hungry, thirsty and suffering. This has gone beyond “nature” and “wildlife” from the start and as of this week it has moved into ANIMAL CRUELTY. Feel free to private message me. I will not be reading this again. Namaste.
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Zoo New England, specifically the keepers at Franklin Park, care for the Boston Common swans over the winter. Perhaps the zoo could help.
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Thank you Andrea -I tried the Franklin Park Zoo last fall when he froze in the pond and they could not take him then. I am planning to try again 🙂
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Good exchange here you and Andrea you are right about gulls, ducks and others in your post above gulls and those on the ocean have a special bond when way out there provide resting spots too! 🙂 Dave & Kim 🙂
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Why can’t the swan be moved to a place that may be appropriate where there are other swans?
What about the Mass Audubon Society- couldn’t they have been contacted? Isn’t this what they do?
This is just wrong to dump a swan in an ocean like it is some kind of Seagull.
The Gloucester Animal Control should do something about this. How could they let this happen?
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