August 15, 2006:  Please click here for new royal swan alert and photos of the swans locked up in their dismal housing conditions.

June 12/06. Updated July 17/06.

!  Free Ottawa's Royal Swans!

Background: Free the swans! - Letters July 17/06 - Councillor insists swans be released June 7/06 - If you love the swans - Editorial June 3/06 - Birds won't get summer on the Rideau Please take a minute to ensure that Ottawa's swans are not kept locked up this summer because of the unwarranted over-reaction of a City bureaucrat. Let the Mayor's office and your Councillor know that you want those that you have elected show leadership on this and not leave these decisions up to staff. If this decision is not reversed, it means these poor birds will have spent almost 2 years in unnatural, small, indoor quarters, meaning a lot of stress on them. The City's defence has been that the federal government has recommended captive birds be kept indoors because of the potential of bird flu. The facts are there has never been a single migratory bird in North America test positive for avian flu, other cities in Canada have rightfully ignored this recommendation and released their swans and, finally, why hasn't the author of this federal edict come forward to defend the recommendation - no doubt because they can't, so they elect to remain anonymous.

CREDIT: Jean Levac, The Ottawa Citizen Ottawa's Royal Swans won't get to enjoy the summer on the Rideau River like they normally do. City staff have decided to heed a federal warning not to release captive birds to avoid the risk of them coming into contact with wild birds carrying avian flu.

Please phone or email the Mayor's office and your city councillor

Ottawa Mayor

Mayor Bob Chiarelli
613-580-2496
Bob.Chiarelli@ottawa.ca

Ottawa Councillors

Free the swans!

The Ottawa Citizen
Letter Published: Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Re: Fear of flu keeps city's Royal Swans locked up, June 3.

The decision by Christine Hartig, who co-ordinates Ottawa's swan program, to keep the Royal Swans cooped up this summer seems overly paranoid. Swans are being let out in every other part of the world, so it seems nobody sees this as being as serious a threat as she does. The bird flu is only a "potential" threat and it seems very unfair to the swans and also to the tax-paying public to keep the birds cooped up over something that may not even happen.

If the bird flu were to arrive, it would probably not be just a passing phase, so keeping the swans penned up for the rest of their lives would not be an option and furthermore, if the public could not see them, then why would we even pay for a swan program?

In any event, I think the swans should be let out and the situation monitored, as is occurring in Halifax.

William Kay,
Ottawa

© The Ottawa Citizen 2006

Free the Royal Swans

The Ottawa Citizen
Letter Published: Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Re: Birds won't get summer on the Rideau, June 3.

If Ottawa's Royal Swans are to live in perpetual quarantine, might that not be a kind of death in and of itself? The river is their life and so too should it be their proper death in the face of risk. Free the swans.

Louisa Battistelli,
Ottawa

© The Ottawa Citizen 2006

Councillor insists swans be released

Chiarelli and assistant say decision to keep swans in pens over avian flu risk was based on faulty information

Jake Rupert
The Ottawa Citizen
Monday, July 17, 2006

A decision not to release the royal swans this summer was based on faulty interpretations of federal guidelines and risk predictions dealing with avian flu, says an Ottawa city councillor and his aide.

Baseline Councillor Rick Chiarelli and aide Mike Patton said they've researched the assumptions behind the decision made by city staff and decided the assumptions are wrong. They want the birds released.

"We've looked into this, and we've been told by the leading scientists in this field that there is virtually no risk of the swans getting avian flu," Mr. Patton said. "We're going to ask that this decision be reviewed and the swans be released immediately."

He said they will make this demand this morning when they present their evidence to city staff.

City officials made the decision in conjunction with Christine Hartig, Ottawa's royal swan program co-ordinator in early June.

She said there are different opinions on the subject of risk and what to do, and that she stands by the decision.

She said swans are an indicator species when it comes to avian flu and it's not worth the risk of possibly exposing them to the disease.

In a memo explaining the decision, she said she ordered the birds held indoors to protect them from the threat of avian flu from wild birds, and to comply with guidelines set by the Public Health Agency of Canada and the Canadian Wildlife Service.

No case of avian flu has been reported in migratory birds anywhere in North America. The only cases of serious bird flu in Canada have been on chicken farms, mostly in British Columbia, but the form of the disease those birds had wasn't the deadly one from which Asian people and birds are dying.

Ken Ross, a biologist and the wildlife service's Ontario migratory bird department head, said the risk of captive birds contracting avian flu from wild birds was almost non-existent.

"The risk is so low right now that there's really no risk," he said. "In North America right now, the risk is essentially zero."

Ms. Hartig said that's one person's opinion and she could find many others with the opposite one. Furthermore, she said, nobody really knows the degree of risk, so why take a chance?

"By the time we knew the virus was around, it could be too late to get them off the river," she said.

"Imagine what people would say if we put them out and they all died. I'd rather be criticized for being too cautious and the birds are alive than for not being cautious and the swans are dead."

The 12 swans, descendants of a dozen birds presented to the city by the Queen in 1967, are usually released into the Rideau River from their winter quarters each spring and rounded up in the fall.

The swans have weathered other controversies in the past -- a funding cut in 1996, and the revelation in 2003 that the last survivor among the original 12 swans was gay.

In the winters, the swans are kept in a facility on Leitrim Road. This is where they are being held this summer.

Mr. Patton says he and Mr. Chiarelli understand the decision not to release the swans was done in the best interests of the birds, but to continue holding them in the face of the evidence would be wrong.

"One scientist told me the swans were in more danger from dogs off of leashes than avian flu, so let's get them on the river where they belong," Mr. Patton said.

© The Ottawa Citizen 2006

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/city/story.html?id=5a469c62-62f3-4d87-a41f-66552c6ac8d4

If you love the swans ...

The Ottawa Citizen
Editorial Published: Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Set them free.

The 12 Royal Swans, descendants of the originals that were presented to the city by the Queen in 1967, are one of the little highlights of the summer in Ottawa.

One would think the reason we have these magnificent birds is to see them. They are part of the pastiche that is this city during the warm weather months.

It is bad enough that the swans must spend their winters cooped up, but now officials are saying they be kept off the Rideau River this summer for fear they will contract bird flu.

There's just one problem. No migratory bird has yet been found in North America with the disease. The chances of the swans catching bird flu are very low. City officials are confining the birds because the federal government has suggested there is a risk of their being exposed to avian influenza.

There might come a time when bird flu appears here in migratory birds and it is then we confine the swans until the threat has disappeared. But the odds of their catching the disease seem low now, especially now that the spring migration has passed.

Perhaps it would be wise to confine them when fall migration starts, but we have the Royal Swans to enjoy their beauty, not confine them. Stratford, Ont., Halifax and London have released their swans.

Let the birds have their annual swim on the river. Let the tourists and area residents enjoy them. If the threat of bird flu increases, by all means, bring them in.

Until then, free the swans.

© The Ottawa Citizen 2006

Birds won't get summer on the Rideau

Jake Rupert
The Ottawa Citizen
Saturday June 3, 2006

CREDIT: Jean Levac, The Ottawa Citizen Ottawa's Royal Swans won't get to enjoy the summer on the Rideau River like they normally do. City staff have decided to heed a federal warning not to release captive birds to avoid the risk of them coming into contact with wild birds carrying avian flu.

Avian flu hasn't hit Ottawa yet, but the fear of a potential epidemic has claimed its first victims: the Royal Swans, who will spend the summer behind bars for their own protection.

The 12 swans, descendants of a dozen birds presented to the city by the Queen in 1967, are usually released onto the Rideau River from their winter quarters each spring, and rounded up in the fall. But earlier this week, city staff decided to heed federal government recommendations not to release captive birds into the wild to avoid "potential risk of exposure to strains of avian influenza" from wild birds.

"It's unfortunate, but it's probably the best thing to do," said Christine Hartig, who has co-ordinated Ottawa's swan program for 20 years. "I'd like to see them happily out on the river, but the decision is really all about protecting the swans."

The swans have weathered other controversies in the past -- a funding cut in 1996, and the revelation in 2003 that the last survivor among the original 12 swans was gay.

But this time, city staff are overreacting, Councillor Rick Chiarelli said. After all, not a single migratory bird in North America has tested positive for avian flu, and the only serious cases in Canada have been on chicken farms, mostly in British Columbia.

Also, officials in other cities with swans have decided to release their birds. Swans in Stratford, Ont., tasted freedom in early April. Halifax officials are not taking in their swans from a downtown park. Swans in London, England, are also out.

"It's important to be careful and take reasonable steps in these types of situations, but I'm not sure this is reasonable," Mr. Chiarelli said. "If there was a real risk, like a case reported here or close by, that would be different, but there hasn't been."

The swans will be kept in the facility on Leitrim Road where they spend their winters. Ms. Hartig said each of the six mating pairs have their own pen, resting area, swimming area and access to an enclosed and private outdoor pen. Crucially, the design of the quarters eliminates the possibility of the swans coming into contact with wild birds.

Ms. Hartig said she plans to monitor the avian influenza situation over the next year and will review all federal guidelines again next year before making a decision on whether to release the swans next summer.

A spokeswoman for the town of Stratford confirmed that all 28 of its swans were released on the Avon River in April and that all are doing well. However, she couldn't say what went into making the decision to release the birds as well as other types of water fowl the city keeps.

Halifax's superintendent of parks, Brian Phelan, said that municipality has two swans living year-round in a large pen with a pond and shed in a downtown park.

He reviewed the federal guidelines recently, but decided the birds would be fine. He said the two males are very aggressive, and when wild birds land in their pen, the swans chase them off almost immediately.

He said things might change if avian influenza is found in a wild bird somewhere near Halifax, but at the moment, "it's not really something we're concerned about."

©The Ottawa Citizen 2006

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=0552bc54-e78f-42a6-8c33-a6441138ca17