Mute Swans: MUCC Urges DNR to Stand Strong Against HSUS
August 13th, 2012 by MUCC Staff.The Detroit Free Press today reported that DNR Wildlife Division Chief Russ Mason is reviewing a plea from a national animal rights group for a moratorium on mute swan killings. The Humane Society of the United States (NOTE they are NOT affiliated with your local animal shelter) is calling on the DNR to suspend lethal control measures for invasive mute swans until they can revise their mute swan management plan.
MUCC’s members and staff fully support the direction of the Michigan Mute Swan Management Plan, which calls for reducing the population from more than 15,000 birds to 2,000 by the year 2030. In fact, there was unanimous support for a recent resolution at MUCC’s 2012 Annual Convention to support the DNR and other agencies in their goal to reduce the impact of mute swans on our native waterfowl and wetland habitats through population reduction.
Chief Mason says the DNR is always open to new ideas that will help them meet their management goals, but “there is not and will not be a moratorium on lethal control”.
We support the DNR in rejecting the HSUS proposal and continuing lethal control measures with the help of agency staff and permitted volunteers (contact your local DNR office for more information on permits). We encourage MUCC members and the public to show their support for mute swan management through letters to the editors and by educating friends, family members, and fellow wildlife enthusiasts on the problems with mute swan overpopulation. The mute swan management plan is fairly new, based on sound science, and we should not waste precious limited wildlife management dollars towards more planning when it comes to mute swans, only in carrying out the existing plan.