SWAN SANCTUARY DOES NOT BREED OR SELL SWANS!
Swan Sanctuary is primarily a consulting service. We strive to be a meeting place for pond owners and displaced swans. Swans are placed with adoptive “parents” who fulfill healthy pond requirements. Much like adopting a dog or cat from your local animal rescue, the prospective owners are screened. An extensive survey is provided to determine if the proposed habitat is suitable for the overall health and well being of swans. The survey will reveal the presence of, or lack of, submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV). SAV provides the bulk of a swan’s diet. An area of at least ten feet surrounding the pond needs to be left un-mowed to create a riparian buffer. One or two swaths may be cut through this buffer, to allow easy access into and out of the water, for both the swans and people. The surrounding property can be studied to determine the primary flora growing there, and whether it consists of mostly native, or invasive plants.
If the pond size is adequate and the property is deemed acceptable, a swan may then be adopted when one becomes available. Nearly all of the swans that are kept on private ponds are considered “captive” swans; meaning they have been rendered flightless, either by pinioning, which is permanent, or by feather clipping, which is done on a yearly basis after the molt. The exception to this, is when a pond owner provides for a pair of Trumpeter swans to raise their young for re-introduction programs.
In the case of Mute Swans, we recommend adoptions of only single, celibate birds, or same-sex pairs. This is to ensure that they do not reproduce and escape into the wild where they create competition with our native swans. Since Trumpeter Swans and Tundra Swans are migratory, only previously pinioned, injured, old, or failing swans will be adoptable. Whooper Swans, Bewick Swans, Black Swans, Black Necked Swans and hybrid swans, though not native or migratory in North America, may become adoptable due to injury or displacement, but will not otherwise be available. I reiterate, SWAN SANCTUARY DOES NOT BREED OR SELL SWANS! We serve merely as an intermediary to bring swan owners and pond owners together, and to prevent the euthanization of Mute swans.
