The people of Birkenhead Park Wirral are heartbroken due to the heartless animal cruelty that has left one much cherished and adored cygnet to lose its life after just a few days of hatching.

The full information around what has happened has yet to be fully investigated, but so far it is alleged that a man has been photographed using a tennis ball to attack the poor young cygnet.

I cannot put into words how this has affected the local community. People from all walks of life and of all ages frequent our beloved park. We have awaited these cygnets arrivals over the last few weeks and have hoped and prayed for a good bit of success for the swans as the last couple of years they haven't managed to raise their young likely due to many factors, one of which being quite young themselves.

The barbaric act has stopped us, the visitors of Birkenhead Park,  in our tracks and agree that we don't want to sit back and do nothing.

Please can something be done to bring some justice for what has happened. Animal cruelty is a serious offence and swans are a protected species by law and royal demand.

CONSERVATION is key here.

What can  be done to stop this happening again,?? More security, cctv, effective protective barriers, ?? we ask for professional guidance on this we want to help make it happen. The volunteers at the park do an amazing job keeping the park clean and tidy for us all, is there a missed opportunity to further educate them on the care of protected swans, does the ranger need MORE volunteers for such a thing to be in place ??

We want to help, please help us to help our swans and their future.

Do we have the funding for extra measures to be taken, fundraising could be an option for the local people.

The more signatures we get will show the local authorities just how deep the feelings around this situation are and how we want to help make things improve in the future

We are the voices of the Wildlife in our park.

We speak for the grieving swan parents who tirelessly tended to the nest as we watched, willing them on every day .

Nature has enough natural battles of its own without the evil unnecessary cruelty we have seen here.

Conservation and justice is what we are asking for.