Feeding bread to swans as a worthy eco-crime

There was little evidence of serious adverse effects from bread feeding among swans captured in a study done during the late 1980s in Dublin and North Wicklow

A Seagull liberates a lump of bread from a Swan at the Claddagh in Galway. Picture: Philip Cloherty

Bread, ‘the staff of life,’ is not a healthy food for birds. It isn’t toxic and won’t poison them, but it has almost no nutritional value.

Like children gorging themselves on junk-food, while turning their noses up at ‘healthy’ offerings, bread-addicted waterfowl may shun natural food. With their bellies full of bread, leaving little room for real food, they risk becoming undernourished in the midst of plenty.