🚨 OUTRAGE IN CALIFORNIA! Governor Gavin Newsom has just approved a hunt on MUTE SWANS — gentle, lake-dwelling birds who don’t harm crops or migrate into fields. This isn’t “management.” It’s senseless killing.
Mute swans stay on lakes and open water — they are easy targets, and hunters can’t tell them apart from Trumpeter and Tundra swans, which means many protected birds will die too.
🚨 California Now Permits Hunting of Mute Swans
Under the new policy, hunters in California are now permitted to shoot mute swans on public lakes and parks — as long as they meet the state’s “safety zone” rule.
📜 Here’s what that means:
Safety Zone Requirement: According to California Fish and Game Code §3004(a), it is unlawful to hunt or discharge a firearm within 150 yards of any occupied residence or building without express permission.
Year-Round Killing: Licensed hunters can now take mute swans any time of year, and landowners may remove them from their property without a hunting license.
No Added Protections: This new rule does not add any restrictions on where swan hunting can occur. Hunting in populated or recreational areas is still only limited by the existing 150-yard safety zone — meaning swans on lakes, ponds, or near homes and parks are now at risk year-round.
Mute swans are peaceful, lake-dwelling birds who do not harm crops or migrate into fields. They are sentinels of clean water and belong in our shared spaces — not in hunters’ crosshairs.
📣 Please continue to speak out. Urge Governor Newsom to rescind this reckless decision and protect California’s wildlife from unnecessary killing. Tell him you demand to see the studies and science that prove the mute swans are damaging native wildlife. Request a Public Records Act (PRA), similar to a (FOIA), for this information.
https://wildlife.ca.gov/General-Counsel/Public-Records-Requests
If Newsom ever plans to run for President, he needs to hear loud and clear: this decision just cost him votes.
📞 Call and write his office: https://www.gov.ca.gov/contact/
📣 Post, tag, and share everywhere.
If you live out of state, please write and email the Governor as well.
Contact your legislators, media , any voice that can pressure Newsom to reverse this disgraceful “hunt” should be used, whether we agree with that person or not. We need a bipartisan effort to stop this from happening. Governor Newsom needs to hear the true facts and not the propaganda that the CDFW and sportsman are spewing out.
https://www.assembly.ca.gov/assemblymembers
https://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov/
THEY WILL BEGIN THE HUNT AND REMOVAL OF MUTE SWANS JANUARY 2026.
IF YOU LIVE IN CALIFORNIA AND LIKE YOUR MUTE SWANS YOU BETTER SPEAK UP NOW TO GET THIS HUNT RESCINDED.
THIS DECISION CAN BE RESCINDED , BUT PEOPLE MUST SPEAK UP AND BOMBARD NEWSON WITH PHONE CALLS AND EMAILS AND CONTACT YOUR LEGISLATORS!
PLEASE SHARE this article on why the mute swans are under attack:
*** Please note: The article states that the Michigan DNR allowed trumpeter swan hunting in October 2014. They allowed tribes to hunt Trumpeter swans in October 2014. Regarding the count: Per Russ Mason, DNR Chief of Wildlife in 2011, "The DNR has one plane that flies across the entire state in one week, with 2 people using binoculars to count them. " When we asked what type of formula they use to help with the count, they had no idea .
Kathryn Burton did extensive research on the swans. Here are a couple articles of interest.
http://www.thebirdist.com/2008/01/interview-with-kathryn-burton-of-save.html
https://www.all-creatures.org/articles/ar-theorigins.html
🐦 Mute swans aren’t the problem — reckless, politically driven wildlife policies are.