{"id":663903,"date":"2026-06-29T06:45:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T06:45:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/663903\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T06:45:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T06:45:15","slug":"swans-taunted-and-hit-with-sticks-at-park-bolton-councillor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/663903\/","title":{"rendered":"Swans ‘taunted’ and ‘hit with sticks’ at park – Bolton councillor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Swans are being “taunted”, “hit with sticks” and left “disgusting foods”, a Greater Manchester councillor has said.<\/p>\n

Sue Haworth, Reform UK councillor for Farnworth, in Bolton, told a full council meeting that children had reportedly been “taunting or hitting a swan with sticks” with one swan found dead, according to volunteers at Moses Gate Country Park.<\/p>\n

Haworth also said around 25 swan eggs had been reported missing at the park this year, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“One report said school age children were taunting or hitting a swan with sticks,” Haworth said. “Disgusting food keeps being left for swans like doner kebab, spicy wedges, chicken with bones and sauce.”<\/p>\n

“Such food is also thrown into the water,” Haworth continued. “This food can kill the wildlife.”<\/p>\n

The incidents were discussed as Bolton councillors debated a motion proposed by councillor Debbie Newall seeking to commit the authority to adopting an animal welfare charter, setting out its approach to protecting animals.<\/p>\n

The motion, which was supported by councillors, also affirms a whole-council approach to animal welfare, recognising its relevance across multiple service areas of the authority.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Swans are being “taunted”, “hit with sticks” and left “disgusting foods”, a Greater Manchester councillor has said. Sue…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":663904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-663903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}