A parkgoer spotted the bloodied swans on Dec. 13 and texted a picture to a member of the \u201cSwan Squad,\u201d a small, self-appointed group of locals who help keep an eye on the park\u2019s wildlife.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth were injured over their right eye, and they are not consistent with swan-on-swan attacks,\u201d said Squad member Mary Beth Artz. \u201cThis is a family, these cygnets are only seven months old. They\u2019re not being pushed out yet by their parents, they\u2019re not aggressive with one another \u2026 these are consistent with a probable dog attack.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"close](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/597628743_1448625930558152_6893612532435659600_n.jpg\")
Parkgoers spotted the bloodied swans on Dec. 13. Photo courtesy of Lisa Deneau<\/p>\n
Rachel Frank, an animal care manager and rehabber at the Wild Bird Fund who has been caring for the birds, agreed. The clinic has treated other birds with similar and severe injuries from dog attacks, she said. Thanks to their large size, mute swans are rarely threatened by natural predators<\/a> \u2014 like foxes or coyotes \u2014 unless they\u2019re already injured or sick.\u00a0<\/p>\n Park rangers tried unsuccessfully to capture the swans on Dec. 13, Artz said. A day later, the Swan Squad staged their own rescue mission and managed to get both birds to the Wild Bird Fund.\u00a0<\/p>\n The cygnets were very stressed when they arrived at the clinic, Frank said. One had a \u201cpretty severe laceration\u201d just above their right eye, which is being treated with antibiotics and pain medication.\u00a0<\/p>\n The other swan had a smaller wound on their head, but suffered a more concerning injury to the right eye. The eye is cloudy, Frank said, and though they\u2019re treating it with medicated drops, she worries the swan might have lost some of its vision.\u00a0<\/p>\n She and the team will continue to monitor the birds and adjust their treatment as needed. It\u2019s \u201cpretty likely\u201d they can both be successfully rehabilitated and returned to their family, Frank said, though the swan with the eye injury may be unreleasable, depending on the severity of its vision loss.\u00a0<\/p>\n Without human intervention, though, the birds would have fared far worse, Frank said. Dogs\u2019 mouths are filled with bacteria that can be deadly for wildlife, and the birds\u2019 injuries were infected when they arrived at the clinic. Since swans constantly dunk their heads into the water to eat, it\u2019s unlikely that the wounds would have healed well.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think they would have done well if we had just left them in the park,\u201d she said.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n Though it\u2019s not clear when or where the attack occurred, Frank said the birds were likely resting on land when the dog approached. Swans can\u2019t take flight easily from a stationary position, she said, so they would have to either rush into the water or attempt to defend themselves.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were probably hissing at it and trying to drive it away, and it probably got them both in the head because they were .. trying to bite at the dog to defend themselves,\u201d Frank said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Off-leash dogs are only allowed<\/a> in certain areas of Prospect Park during certain hours of the day, and are not permitted near the lake, where the swans live. While many dog owners are happy to oblige, a number regularly break the rules, Artz said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we were trying to rescue these two cygnets last weekend, there were actually dogs running around,\u201d she said. \u201cWe had to ask the owners, please, we\u2019re in the middle of a rescue, which is not easy \u2014 it was freezing \u2014 and they\u2019re just letting their dogs run around.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Dogs often grab birds and other small mammals and shake them, causing severe injuries, Frank said. The Wild Bird Fund has treated a number of birds with serious neck injuries from dog attacks, she said, and even a possum who lived the rest of its life in a sanctuary after neurological damage from a dog attack left it blind.\u00a0<\/p>\n Chris Clark, a spokesperson for the city\u2019s parks department, said the agency is \u201ccommitted to protecting our greenspaces and wildlife habitats and maintaining the general health of New York City\u2019s urban environment for all New Yorkers \u2014 both human and animal.\u201d<\/p>\n This year, the department has issued about 200 off-leash dog summonses in Prospect Park alone. Per department rules, all dogs have to be prevented from chasing wildlife, and PEP officers can cite owners who can\u2019t control their dogs whether they\u2019re leashed or not.\u00a0<\/p>\n But Artz said off-leash rules and other protections for wildlife are rarely enforced in the park, which is part of why the Swan Squad was formed \u2014 along with a larger group, W.I.L.D. for Prospect Park. There aren\u2019t enough park rangers or PEP officers to keep track of everything, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe realize that they are short staffed,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s just a small number of rangers \u2026 there\u2019s just not enough staffing to monitor what needs to be monitored. I know they try, but a lot more has to be done. We are constantly seeing the wildlife in trouble because of the lack of enforcement.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The swans and other birds in the park face additional human-related threats. When Artz and the Swan Squad rescued the two injured swans, they saw that another cygnet had fishing wire tangled around its neck.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s a common sight at the Prospect Park lake, where people often leave their fishing line and hooks in the water and on the shore. Since ducks, geese and swans forage for food at the bottom of lakes and ponds, they frequently end up getting tangled with abandoned fishing equipment, and Frank said that the cygnets\u2019 dad, who has lived at the park since 2022, has been taken to the Wild Bird Fund at least once for a fishing line injury.\u00a0<\/p>\n In March W.I.L.D. for Prospect Park rescued<\/a> a Canada Goose after an abandoned fishing lure snagged its wing and left a bloody wound. Last year, the group spent weeks chasing a duck with a fish hook lodged in its foot.\u00a0Sometimes, the harm isn\u2019t accidental \u2014 in 2019, someone stole<\/a> seven swan eggs from the park.\u00a0<\/p>\n Artz and the other members of W.I.L.D. regularly roam the park, keeping an eye on the birds and speaking to dog owners when necessary, she said. But they have no power to enforce the rules, and not everyone is receptive to their efforts. She said the city must increase its education and enforcement efforts to keep the city\u2019s wildlife safe.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe need education on the ground,\u201d Artz said. \u201cIt would be great if the parks department, the rangers, could develop a program in real time, on-site out there. What would really help is to have people in uniform \u2026 just to have people connect in the right way.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two of Prospect Park\u2019s beloved swans are recovering at a wildlife clinic after they were attacked by what…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[1457,98,100,99,38491,38492,38493,3242,38494,38495,9,24,12,370,63,38496,38497,38498,6124,15739,15740,32457,38499,38500,38501,16966,38502,38503,38504,38505,38506,2197],"class_list":{"0":"post-76867","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-animals","9":"tag-brooklyn","10":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","11":"tag-brooklyn-news","12":"tag-clinic","13":"tag-cygnets","14":"tag-department-of-parks-and-recreation","15":"tag-environment","16":"tag-fuzzy-brooklyn","17":"tag-mary-beth-artz","18":"tag-new-york","19":"tag-new-york-city","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-newsletter","22":"tag-nyc","23":"tag-nyc-parks-department","24":"tag-off-leash-dog","25":"tag-off-leash-dog-attack","26":"tag-pets","27":"tag-prospect-park","28":"tag-prospect-park-alliance","29":"tag-prospect-park-lake","30":"tag-prospect-park-swans","31":"tag-rachel-frank","32":"tag-rehab","33":"tag-swan","34":"tag-swan-squad","35":"tag-swans","36":"tag-vet","37":"tag-w-i-l-d-for-prospect-park","38":"tag-wild-bird-fund","39":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"swan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_8486.jpg\")
One swan\u2019s head injury has begun to heal at the Wild Bird Fund. Photo courtesy of Rachel Frank<\/p>\n![\"geese](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1766284510_686_ProspectPark_110325-17.jpg\")
Human activities also pose risks to waterfowl like ducks and geese who call Prospect Park home. File photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n