Dangers to Swans

British swans have few natural enemies. After all, they are protected by our royal family. Completely wild swans are often referred to as Royal swans and in fact only the royal family are allowed to kill and eat them. I believe, though, the current royal family does not do that.
Swans are big birds and can fend for themselves. They will attack humans and dogs if threatened. They also hiss which can make them sound very aggressive. They could certainly cause a substantial injury to a human though whether they would actually break a man’s arm as is often rumoured is a little doubtful. Certainly we would usually rather not try to find out. A cob raised up on its legs, hissing and flapping its wings can seem quite threatening.
Because swans now often live quite close to humans they can be threatened by human activity. Power lines can be a problem, especially if they are near water. Migrating swans will often not see them and a whole flock can crash into them. Power companies could help – in fact they could help all birds – by putting plastic discs on to the power lines.
Some of the most common injuries to swans are caused by discarded fish hooks. Swans forage on river beds for their food so a hook and line can easily be swallowed or get caught in their mouth or around their beak. This can prevent them from being able to feed and can cause infection which can also lead to death.

There is always a problem with vandalism, such as people throwing stones or firing air rifles at the birds, destroying their nests or stealing their eggs. Sometimes the adult swans are killed so that the cygnets can be stolen, but most times the attacks are completely mindless. Some canny swans learn to nest where the humans can’t get to them. The Outwood swans have had their fair share of disasters and they finally raised five cygnets last summer when they tucked their nest away in a spot where no human could possibly walk. Often one of the dogs will make a big fuss about the swans – who either ignore them completely or hiss just enough to send the dogs away with their tails between their legs.
One of the biggest threats remains pollution, whether industrial or domestic. Oil toxicosis is caused by spillage of petroleum products and is not easy to treat. Industrial effluent can get into rivers and into the water lands where the swans make their home. This is obviously a threat to all wildlife.
Humans, especially little ones, love to feed the swans and white bread can be nutritious and good for them especially in cold weather. Most swans are very wise and know not to overfeed. However, mouldy bread is a different matter and we should resist the temptation to take our stale bread to the swans. It can cause the irritating “pink flamingo feather syndrome”. This means the feathers stop being waterproof. But mouldy bread can also make the swans very ill in other ways and can cause death. In the end, it’s probably better to let the swans feed naturally.

The Domestic Life of Swans

The swan normally mates for life with one partner. However, if a mate dies the swan will seek another partner and a sort of “swan divorce” is not unknown if nesting fails. So, I guess we can be happy for the pair in The Man Pond. They do manage to stay together until they have their family. It wasn’t without its problems, though.
Swan life can be as varied sometimes as human life – recent research shows that swans can be transgendered, homosexual and even have little extra-marital affairs. It is mainly the female who goes astray, cheating with another usually “single” male.
Unlike ducks and geese the male swan helps with the nest construction. The average egg size is 113 x 74 mm, weighing 340 g, in a clutch size of 4 to 7, and an incubation period of 34–45 days. They lay one egg every two days. The males aid in incubating the eggs. The nest is on the ground near water and about a metre across. They generally start building nests in March or April. The male, known as the cob, fiercely defends the territory that he and his mate, the pen, share. If an intruder, such as another male swan, dares to invade his territory he uses a threat posture, raising his wings and back feathers, while lowering his head and moving powerfully through the water. This display usually frightens away the intruder. At Outwood Park you can see three abandoned nests.

Swans can feed in the water and on land. They are almost entirely herbivorous, although small numbers of aquatic animals may be eaten. In the water food is obtained by up-ending or dabbling, - what I call “going tippy-up” and their diet is composed of the roots, tubers, stems and leaves of aquatic and submerged plants. To help with the digestion of these plants in its gizzard, or second stomach, the swan swallows grit which grinds up the food. They eat about 4 kilos a day. White bread actually does them little harm. They generally know not to overfeed. A few people are seen giving “white food” to the swans at Outwood.
Swans can live for up to 35 years, though more commonly their life span is just 10-20 years. 

Flying Swans

Swans fly fine. They are not quite as elegant or controlled as geese as they rush through the air, but they do progress and they can go in a straight line. The swan tends to fly alone or with a mate and very occasionally in a small family unit. Often it will only fly to find a new nesting ground, or a new mate, and in the case of the swan in my story both. Or the young will fly to a new body of water when they leave their parents, at about two years of age. In other words, they only fly if they have to. They hum as they fly – is this a sign of terror? It’s quite something for a “mute” animal to make any sort of noise. It’s certainly a very different noise from the chatter that geese make as they fly: the geese sound joyous and almost like humans gossiping.

The Outwood swans flew away during the recent cold weather. We didn’t see them leave. One day they were there. The next day they were gone. We worried about how they were faring. Even the Ship Canal was frozen over in places. 

Then one day, as the thaw began, he – we swore it was the adult male, Fendrak, - flew right over our house, looking as if he was heading for the mill-pond. We rushed over.
It must have been just a reccy trip. They’ve not been back since and we miss them. Our local wildlife warden reckons they may well come back – or at least the adult breeding pair. We hope so.
Or could it just be that Fendrak didn’t want us to see him land.


Swans are elegant on the water, passable in the air but landing is not their forte. They make rather a mess of it. They sort of skid on their feet and flap their wings furiously. You’d never want to be in a plane that landed like that.

So, if we see Fendrak approach again, we’ll leave him to land in peace. And hope to go over there the next day and find him and his little family resettled in their old home.

The Outwood Swans

“There’s just one more thing I’d like to show you,” said Simon, the agent.
I’d already viewed the house and was quite clear that this was the best we’d seen so far. It was a reasonable price, though a little too 1990s for my taste. Still, the “suitable for people who like walks in the country” had considerable pulling power.
“I’m just going to show Dr James the lake,” he said to the owners.
It was just a short walk to St Paul’s Close, a cul de sac which ends at the entrance to the Outwood Country Park.
“What do you think?” asked Simon.
There it was: a small lake – or rather what Fendrake might call a “man-pond”. And on it a most beautiful swan, swimming elegantly, like they do.
“She lost her mate in the summer,” said Simon. “She seems a bit lonely.”
“What happened?” I asked.
“No-one knows,” replied Simon. “He was just not there one day.”
“So, what is this place?” I asked.
“There used to be a paper-mill here,” said Simon. “This was the mill-pond.”


We took the house. Already I was beginning to get an idea for a story and Gentle Footprints hadn’t even been thought of then. I was fascinated by this lonely female swan. I was also rather fascinated by an estate-agent who knew how to sex a creature like her. Perhaps most of all I was fascinated by this piece of land which had formerly been industrialised but that was now going back to nature. Except it wasn’t really going back to nature – nature is arriving in a way that it was never there before. The body of water that was here before the mill would never have been suitable for a swan.
There is a lot of this about in my area. The Manchester Ship Canal no longer has big ships mooring there. A few rowing boats and canoes potter about. The area around it, now called Salford Quays, is covered with blocks of eye-catching luxury flats, home to up-and-coming young professionals. Yet there’s room for nature. Sometimes people who look after the canals sweep the bits of “debris” together to tidy up the water. I’m pleased to say that these days this is mainly natural material – twigs, leaves, moss.
Then the water birds descend – cranes, heron, all sorts of geese, unusual ducks and several different seabirds. Even sometimes swans. There are extremely rich pickings in this natural debris. I’m sure we’d never have seen these wondrous creatures so close to such a big industrial town as Manchester before the Ship Canal was built.
As nature comes near to us in this new way, we have to learn to live with it differently. That isn’t without its difficulties for either us or the animals. The territorial divisions are less distinct now. And that’s what The Man-Pond is all about really.

The Hunt And The Ban!

Five Years On

And lastly we turn to hunting. This is a subject that simply refuses to go away. Five years on since the ban was put into place the arguments and tensions are as raw as ever. David Cameron has upped the anti even more by promising to repeal the act if the Tories get into power. We are sure to see increasing tension from both the hunting fraternity and the anti hunt lobby in the coming months.

The ban is surrounded by controversy and contains many loopholes which hunters are accused of using to flout the law. Many people are under the misguided notion that the ban has put an end to the killing of foxes with hounds and are shocked to discover that there is a growing amount of documented evidence to show that foxes are still being hunted and killed in pretty much the same way as before, with the addition of birds of prey which are used to attack the fox once it has been flushed out into the open.

The League Against Cruel Sports has been regularly monitoring hunts and claims that violence towards the monitors is commonplace. Monitors are people employed to check that the hunt is not acting illegally but, according to The League, they are often prevented from carrying out this task by threats of violence.

The League Against Cruel Sports stated that this photograph was taken well after the ban against hunting was implemented

Image of the Day - 19

In an attempt to intimidate monitors, the hunters dump the body of a fox they’ve killed on top of the monitor’s car.


The following is a generalised account of a pre-ban fox hunt

Prior to a hunt the Master or huntsman would usually contact farmers and landowners in the area to agree where the hunt could go. The night before, or early on the day of the hunt, efforts were made to block up the entrances to fox earths, badger setts and places such as drains to prevent foxes going underground once the hunt has started. The Protection of Badgers Act 1992 had permitted “soft” stopping of badger setts, although this is now illegal.

Usually, riders, hounds and followers met at about 11:00 am. The huntsman, hunt staff and hounds would go to the agreed starting point. The mounted field led by the Field Master, would follow at a distance. Followers would set off, in vehicles and on foot, to watch the hunt.

The hounds would be encouraged to search for a fox in coverts, woods or rough ground. Once the hounds found a scent they would bark excitedly and follow the scent trail. Sometimes the hounds would catch a fox quickly and kill it before it could run. Other times, the hounds would pursue the fox. Often, the hounds would lose the scent so they might have to search in order to find it again. If the hounds were successful in their pursuit they would catch it, kill it and tear it apart. After a kill the huntsman or woman would call off the hounds, and then the tail of the fox, and sometimes its feet, would be removed and given to the followers.

Several sessions of trying to search, pursue and kill foxes would be carried out during the hunting day.

Often the fox would go underground, commonly referred to as ‘going to ground’. It might be dug out by a terrier man and killed if the farmer or landowner had requested this. It was not considered good practice for a fox to be hunted again after being dug out. However, it was not unusual for a fox to be bolted from its underground refuge and hunted again by placing a terrier below ground.

Some hunts operated on foot, particularly in areas where the terrain was unsuitable for riding. These hunts operated in generally the same way as described above except that there would be no riders and the hounds could be much further away from the huntsman.

Cub hunting would take place in August or September. The huntsman and others on foot or horseback would surround a covert or other place where foxes might be found. Hounds would be sent in to either kill the young foxes or flush them out and pursue them. Those surrounding the covert would try and stop the foxes from escaping by making noise. The purpose of cub hunting included the training of young, inexperienced hounds.

There have been over 100 successful prosecutions under the Hunting Act.

On 18 November 2004 hunting with dogs was banned in England and Wales with the passing of the Hunting Act 2004. The ban on hunting with dogs became law three months later on 18 February 2005. The Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002 pre-dated legislation on hunting in the rest of Britain by two years.

Before the Hunting Act came into effect many hunters announced their intention to flout the law. A ‘Hunting Declaration’, founded by Prof Roger Scruton, accumulated over 50,000 signatures from people prepared to break the law in the event of a hunting ban.

This was the culmination of many years of campaigning by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), the RSPCA and the League Against Cruel Sports, along with other groups and individuals. A 2009 Ipsos-Mori poll showed that three out of every four people in Britain (75%) thought that fox hunting should remain illegal and 72% of those in rural areas do not want fox hunting legalised.

Since the implementation of the Hunting Act, professional hunt monitors have continued to document the activities of hunts. IFAW, the League and the RSPCA are now working closely with enforcement bodies and their evidence has led to public and private prosecutions being initiated.

This last blog is dedicated to the memory of Michael Foot who died earlier this week.He was a leading campaigner for animal welfare in this country. A man with a brave spirit and gentle heart! R.I.P.

Tally-ho Hark Away.

The sun has just peep'd its head over the hill,
And the ploughboy is whistling so blithe in the fields,
The birds they are singing so sweet on the sprays,
Says the huntsman to his dogs, "Tally-ho! Hark away!"

Tally-ho! Hark Away! Tally-ho! Hark Away!
Tally-ho! Tally-ho! Tally-ho! Hark Away!

Come, now my brave sportsmen and make no delay,
Quickly saddle yur horses and let's brush away,
For the fox is in view and he's kindled with scorn,
Come along, my brave sportsmen and join the shrill horn.

He led us a chase, more than twenty long miles,

Over hedges, over ditches, over gates and over stiles;
Little David came up with his musical horn,
"We shall soon overtake him, for his tail darags along."

He led us a chase six hours in full cry,
Tally-ho Tally-ho! for now he must die.
We will cut off his brush witha holloaing noise,
And we'll drink a good health to the fox-hunting boys.

Anonymous

The Foxhunt

You gentlemen of high renown come listen unto me
That take delight in foxhunting in every high degree
A story true to you I'll tell concerning of a fox
Of Royston Hills and mountains high and over stony rocks

Old Reynold being in his den and hearing of these hounds
Which made him for to prick his ears and tread upon the ground
Me thinks me hears some jubal hounds pressing upon my life
Before that they to me shall come I'll tread upon the ground

We hunted full four hours or more by parishes sixteen
We hunted full four hours or more and come by Parkworth Green
Oh if you'll only spare my life I promise and fulfil
I'll touch no more of your feathered fowl nor lamb in yonder fold

Old Reynold beat and out of breath and dreading of these hounds
Thinking that he might lose his life before the jubal hounds
Oh here's adieu to duck and geese likewise young lamb also
They've got old Reynold by the brush and will not let him go

Anonymous

An Apology

I see it in your eyes girl,

You’ve been hunted before.

Your spirit is missing,

Not there any more.

Cautious, mistrustful,

Don’t blame you at all.

You’ve been hunted before girl,

Aye, you’ve heard the hounds call.

They bayed for your blood,

Dogs egged on by the clan,

Monsters descended from barbaric man.

You managed to dodge them,

Just saved by the bell

As dusk grasped you tightly,

And wrenched you from hell.

You’ve been hunted before girl,

I can see it in your face,

Please allow me to apologise

On behalf of my race.

Sharon Waters

To recognise and respect the spirit of those less powerful than ourselves is to recognise and respect the true meaning of the human spirit.

To those of you that do this - Be Proud!

http://www.aminoritypastime.net/

http://www.league.org.uk/

http://www.foxproject.org.uk/

http://www.campaignfordecency.org.uk/
http://www.diggingout.org/
www.bio.bris.ac.uk/research/mammal/foxinfo.html
http://www.permuted.org.uk

Foxes And The Fur Trade

What Price Vanity?

The more you delve, the more you uncover. Animal cruelty exists in layer after layer.

Look into the fur trade and you will see the horrific conditions in which foxes and other animals are kept in to satisfy our vanity. And be careful! We all seem to be under the impression that fur in this country is a thing of the past and that nowadays its all fake. Think again!
Although the fur trade is banned in the UK it is important to mention it because the fox is slaughtered on a huge scale for vanity too and its fur makes its way into our shops.

The Fur Trade

Each year the fur industry kills over 50 million animals for fashion. Foxes account for a large proportion of these figures. Millions are either being captured in traps or languising in fur farms.

It takes between 15 and 20 foxes to make one fur coat and the animals are kept in horrific conditions and killed in an equally appalling manner. Check out the PETA web site www.peta.org and www.furisdead.com

The Problem with Fur Trim

According to the industry, the majority of the animals killed are used for fur trim. Fur trim is not only found in upscale boutiques and designer collections, but in average department stores and supermarkets.

In an effort to reverse its declining fortunes during the last decade - as consumers turned their backs on fur - the industry has swamped the market with cheap fur trim. In pursuing this marketing strategy, the fur industry is also targeting young, first-time buyers, subliminally portraying fur as fun, trendy and ethically acceptable. Fur trim comes in many guises, from hood- and sleeve- trimmed parka jackets to sweaters, dresses, purses, gloves, hats, bedroom slippers and boots. It also can appear on accessories, children's toys, and trinkets. Even designers who pledged never to use fur have resorted to fur trim.

Because fur trim often goes unlabelled and is used on many budget clothing items, many consumers end up purchasing "real" fur thinking that it's fake. Some consumers mistakenly believe that fur trim only consists of "leftovers" from the production of full-length coats. The truth, however, is that animals are bred, killed and skinned specifically for fur trim. In fact, today, more animals are killed for fur trim than for full-length coats. 90% of fur from foxes killed on fur farms is used as fur trim.

Animals are trapped in the wild or raised on industrial fur farms under deplorable conditions to feed the fur trim habit. Animals that end their days as trim include: fox, mink, chinchilla, raccoon, coyote, and rabbit. On occasion, unsuspecting consumers may even be buying fur trim made out of domestic dog or cat fur, imported from the Far East.

So it is important to remember that:

• Fur trim is not a by-product of the full-fur coat industry.
• Just because a product is inexpensive does not mean the fur is fake.
• At least one animal dies for each piece of fur trim or fur accessory.
• Fur trim is produced using the same cruel methods that manufacture full-fur coats.
• If the label does not explicitly state that the trim is synthetic, avoid the product and thus the risk that it is made from real fur.
• Fur trim, implicated in the suffering and death of millions of animals every year, is unnecessary in the modern day and age, when many superior, synthetic alternatives are available.

Fur producers often claim that their animals are well looked but evidence shows that this is not the case.

Good food, low stress and a clean environment are central to any animal's health and wellbeing. And it is precisely the absence of all three of these factors that makes fur farms so conducive to disease, mental distress, and high mortality rates. The Canadian Fur Institute says, "Mink, fox and chinchilla farmers feed their animals with eggs, meat and fish that have been judged unfit for human consumption." This "food" generally consists of slaughterhouse byproducts, which the fur farms obtain for free or for very little money. The use of this lowgrade food is one of the main causes of TME, a disease similar to mad cow disease.

Furbearers that are confined on intensive farms exhibit neurotic behaviors, such as weaving, pacing, self-mutilation and cannibalism - all of which are signs of extreme mental distress. These abnormal behaviors are a direct result of the barren, filthy and miserable conditions under which these intelligent, sensitive animals are forced to exist.

Death, when it comes, is brutal. Animals are dispatched in a way designed first and foremost to protect their pelts from damage: gassing, neck-breaking, poisoning and electrocution via the mouth or genitals are four of the most common methods.

And this is at regulated fur farms. In China, the biggest exporter of pelts in the world, fur farming is completely unregulated. There are no laws whatsoeverto protect animals. Here animals are routinely skinned alive because it is thought to make the pelt softer, is considered easier to do and uses fewer resources than killing humanely.

In 2005, the Swiss Animal Protection (SAP) released an undercover video depicting details of a fur farm in Hebei, China in which men were seen throwing live animals to the ground and skinning them while they were still alive.

On a human level it is important to note the toxic side effects of the industry!

While raw pelts may indeed be biodegradable, the fur industry neglects to mention that all of the animal skins used to make fur coats are tanned. Tanning is a procedure that stabilizes the collagen or protein fibers in animals skins specifically to stop them from biodegrading. Today's tanning processes use a variety of environmentally damaging substances, including mineral salts, formaldehyde, coal tar derivatives, and various oils, dyes, and finishes,

Among the disastrous consequences of this noxious waste is the threat to human health from the highly elevated levels of lead, cyanide, and formaldehyde in the ground water near tanneries. The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention found that the incidence of leukemia among residents in an area surrounding one tannery in Kentucky was five times the national average.

People who work in tanneries are dying of cancer caused by exposure to dimethylformamide and other toxic chemicals used to process and dye the skins. The coal tar derivatives used are extremely potent cancer-causing agents. According to one study released by the New York State Department of Health, more than half of all testicular cancer victims work in tanneries.

Most of the world’s farmed fur is produced by European farmers. There are 6,000 fur farms in the EU. The EU accounts for 70% of fox production. Finland is the largest United States supplier of fox pelts. The United States is a major exporter of furskins. China with its huge fur industry is the largest importer and re-exporter of fur in the world.

Demand fell in the late 1980s and 1990s because of a number of factors, including the failure of designers to come up with exciting new lines, and also the efforts of animal rights campaigners. Since the turn of the millennium, however, sales worldwide have soared to record highs, fuelled by radically new techniques for working with fur, and a sharp rise in disposable income in China and Russia. This growing demand has led to the development of extensive fur farming operations in countries such as China, where activist groups such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) have raised concerns about inhumane treatment of animals and the nature of some slaughterhouse practices.



Farmers argue that today's farmed animals only know farm life. Hunters and trappers argue that the ultimate in "free range" fur comes from wild harvest where the animals live all their lives in the wild.

I think the reality is somewhat different!

Tomorrow - my last post. I will be looking at hunting with hounds! See you then.

Enemies Of The Fox

Paul Cecil Everything Is Permuted
http://www.permuted.org.uk

The fox has many enemies. They mostly originate from human sources. These include shooting, snaring, gassing, poisoning, the fur trade and hunting. Over the next few days I will be discussing these in more detail.

Snaring

The UK is one of only five European members that still allow animal snares to be used. Ireland, France, Spain and Belgium have far stricter snare rules compared to the UK.

It is estimated that aound 36,000 foxes are caught in snares each year. More than 12,300 animals are killed in theUK by gamekeepers every day for the benefit of the shooting interests.

Almost 70 per cent of animals caught in snares are not the intended targets. No DEFRA official has ever checked to see if a snare fulfils their own code of practice and are lawful. Animals caught this way suffer a long and painful death www.antisnaring.org.

Cats, dogs, rabbits, badgers and others have all been seriously injured or killed by these barbaric devices.


Shooting





Shooting foxes in the UK is widespread. Any search on the internet will show you just how popular it is. It is legal to shoot them provided it does not take place near to a public highway or residential buildings but I would imagine that this regulation is often ignored. They are shot for a number of reasons by people who still, (in spite of research to the contrary) class them as vermin or pests, or by people for 'sport'.

The fox pictured above is luckily on the way to recovery after being wounded by a shotgun.

Although poisoning foxes is illegal in the UK and carries a hefty fine, it is, in reality, widespread.and causes untold suffering to foxes and many others species of wildlife. Again the fox being mistakenly seen as vermin has led to people taking the law into their own hands and laying deadly bait in an effort to get rid of them.

The Metal Monsters

It is worth mentioning the car because it is, without doubt a major enemy of the fox. No one really knows how many foxes sre killed this way but the best estimate is around 100,000 a year. Certainly a lot of foxes are killed on our roads and this may be the single most important cause of death for foxes in Britain.

The Mammal Act

The Wild Mammal (Protection) Act 1996 protects most mammals from a variety of cruel acts which are intended to cause unnecessary suffering. When a fox has been captured the Protection of Animals Act 1911 can also be used to prosecute those people who ill treat the fox.

Poison: There is no poison that can be legally used on foxes. Use of a poison to kill foxes would lead to either a large fine or imprisonment.

Gassing: Again the use of any gas to kill foxes is illegal.

Spring Traps: Can not be used against foxes and traps with teeth have been illegal in this country since 1954 for all animals.

Free running snare: May be legally used to catch foxes but is subject to many restrictions. In urban areas its doubtful that these restrictions can be met.

Self tightening snare is illegal.

Although this act is there to offer some protection, it is obvious from the above examples that there is a widespread misuse of the law in this country and thousands of innocent animals are suffering on a daily basis.