A California bill (AB764) introduced by Assembly member Jeff Gonzalez, which would allow landowners and hunters to shoot mute swans, has quietly passed the Assembly and is pending in the Senate.

That’s why we are asking our supporters in California to make some noise by calling and writing their state senators to tell them to vote no to this reckless, inhumane legislation if it gets called. You can find your senators here: Find Your California Representatives

It is a desperate attempt by a dying hunting industry to add another “bird to the bag” and we won’t stand by and let it happen!

California has about 286,300 hunters—but the state also has 40 million people, which means that fewer than 1 percent of Californians hunt, just about the lowest per-capita number of any state in the United States.

That’s music to our ears!

Yet this tiny group is big on spreading misinformation about mute swans—they say they must be killed to mitigate negative interactions with humans and because of so-called negative impacts on native bird species and natural plant communities.

Mute swans mate for life and are protective parents and should be spared a state-sanctioned killing spree. Persecution persists thanks to ongoing smear campaigns that label mute swans as invasive even though they have been here since the late 19^th Century.

When wildlife agencies like the California Dept. of Fish and Wildlife, which treat hunters as clients, get away with saying that mute swans are invasive, all the misconduct toward these majestic birds is justified in the eyes of the abusers. It opens the door for mistreatment and lack of respect and continues to put them in harm’s way.

There is no demonstrable evidence of destruction of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV), displacement of native wildlife and degradation of water quality. Hunting apologists fail to admit that loss of SAV has to do with runoff containing significant concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus from fertilizers, pesticides and industrial and animal waste. 

Not to mention a lot of waterfowl consume aquatic vegetation.

Wildlife agencies also like to point out that SAV beds are important for sustaining less numerous duck species—in California that means the redhead, pintail and canvas back. Yet the DPFA allows hunters to blow the heads off these species in the Suisun Marsh of Northern California.

Interestingly, the state says most of its mute swans are in the Suisun Marsh, a sprawling complex of public wetlands, agricultural lands and wait for it…private duck-hunting clubs .

You can’t make this stuff up!

Please sound off for California’s mute swans.