Follow for more talkers

Dozens of white swans covered in oil after illegal dumping

Avatar photo

Published

on

By Joe Morgan and Ben Austin via SWNS

Dozens of white swans coated with oil are being treated after a serious incident of "illegally dumping" in a river.

The flock of around 50 birds are being medicated and fed following the Category 1 pollution incident, which is the most serious, on the River Medway in Kent, England.

Dozens of white swans coated with oil are being treated after a serious incident of "illegally dumping" in the River Medway.(The Swan Sanctuary via SWNS).

Volunteers from The Swan Sanctuary, based in Shepperton, Middlesex, rushed out to rescue swans and geese following the incident near Hampstead Lock in Yalding, near Maidstone.

They were aided by members of the public in rescuing as many swans as possible.

The Environmental Agency set up temporary floating barriers known as booms in an attempt to reduce the area affected.

Steve Knight, spokesperson for the Swan Sanctuary, said: "They will need to be cleaned, fed, medicated and housed over the coming weeks until they are ready to be returned to Kent once the Environment Agency can assure us that the River Medway is in a fit state.

"We thought the oil had been contained at Hampstead lock to protect the wildlife.

"It wasn't contained very well for a Category 1 spill."

"We had to carry out a Category 1 wildlife rescue as far down as East Farleigh."

Mr. Knight added: "Because there were so many contaminated birds one of the local residents helped with transporting them to the hospital.

"It has been a bit of a mammoth task and this all has a huge cost as you can imagine.

"All the ambulances sent from the sanctuary are owned, maintained and fuelled by the charity. Our staff that attended are all employed by the charity.

Before and after shot showing one of the Swans. (The Swan Sanctuary via SWNS).

"All vehicles will have done about a thousand miles on this one incident."

The charity receives no government funding and relies solely on donations form the public.

An EA spokesperson said: "The Environment Agency officers have been working with specialist contractors throughout the weekend to clear up as much oil as possible.

"Hampstead Lock will remain closed to navigation until the clear up operation is completed which we expect will take another day or two.

"We believe that the oil was illegally tipped into a drain in the vicinity of Yalding Station sometime on the morning of Friday February 11."

Stories and infographics by ‘Talker Research’ are available to download & ready to use. Stories and videos by ‘Talker News’ are managed by SWNS. To license content for editorial or commercial use and to see the full scope of SWNS content, please email [email protected] or submit an inquiry via our contact form.

Top Talkers