By Steve Klamkin WPRO News
Rhode Island authorities were conducting a necropsy on a swan found shot to death Wednesday on Gaspee Point Beach in Warwick, and said that if it was found to be an intentional act, the shooting could result in prison time.
“I was upset,” said Dave Hornoff, a retired Warwick Police Detective Sergeant who lives nearby and said on Thursday that he discovered the swan along with another resident, they both called the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management.
“People here in Gaspee Point, we care about our wildlife, we care about our environment,” Hornoff said while walking his dog. “When something like this happens, it’s kind of upsetting the cart, and we don’t like that.”
Several swans floated off the beach on the lower end of the Providence River on a cloudy, chilly Thursday afternoon, as several people walked in and out of the beach area, some walking dogs. A state DEM officer also stopped by, along with news crews.
“We know that it died because of being shot, but we want to just figure out if there was anything else going on with that bird in terms of, like a disease or something,” MIchael Healey, a spokesman for the DEM told WPRO’s Tara Granahan, who was first to report the shooting.
“We’re trying to figure out if someone shot that bird accidentally or purposefully,” Healey said, after a necropsy, or animal autopsy was ordered by the DEM.
“It makes us responsible hunters look like jerks,” said Bob, another Gaspee Point neighborhood resident who asked that his last name not be used.
“Duck season ended a couple of weeks ago and they are allowed to shoot ducks over here, which I’m against. I mean, I hunt, I would never hunt over here, because it’s too residential for me,” he said.
He said that it was possible the swan was shot somewhere else, and flew to the beach, where it died. But Bob speculated that it was more likely that kids were to blame.
“They’ll find out. I mean, kids can’t keep their mouth shut, you know, and if they did shoot the swan, they’re going to be bragging about it. So, I just hope that they come forward and apologize and whatever, you know, because it’s just not right,” Bob said.
The DEM’s Healey said intentionally shooting wildlife is a serious crime in Rhode Island.
“If it is that, that’s a felony. That’s a big deal,” Healey said. “That is possibly, like a five year imprisonment, a thousand dollar fine,” he said.
