{"id":779020,"date":"2026-09-22T15:54:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T15:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/779020\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T15:54:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T15:54:09","slug":"swan-killed-and-has-head-removed-in-leeds-roundhay-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/779020\/","title":{"rendered":"Swan killed and has head removed in Leeds&#8217; Roundhay Park"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Police have appealed for information after a swan was killed and its head removed in a Leeds park.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The animal was found in Roundhay Park on Monday, close to the lake, a spokesperson for West Yorkshire Police said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, it is a criminal offence to kill a swan in the UK.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">An RSPCA spokesperson said: &#8220;We know how much people love seeing these popular birds in their local community and this incident will be very upsetting for everyone who enjoys coming to this park.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">They added: &#8220;Without seeing the swan&#8217;s body it is difficult to say with certainty if this bird&#8217;s death is suspicious or the result of other causes, such as natural predation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Some had speculated whether a fox may have been responsible for the swan&#8217;s death, but a spokesperson for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said a swan would typically be &#8220;too big and strong&#8221; for them to kill.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The RSPCA said it received 22 reports of cruelty in West Yorkshire in summer 2025, when reports reached a five-year high at national level.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Swans were among the most commonly targeted animals, along with pigeons, corvids, gulls and ducks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Police appealed for anyone with information about the swan&#8217;s death to get in touch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police have appealed for information after a swan was killed and its head removed in a Leeds park.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":779021,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-779020","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\/779020","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=779020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/779021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=779020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=779020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=779020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}