ORLANDO, Fla. – Orlando District 4 Commissioner Patty Sheehan joined volunteers and veterinarians at Lake Eola Park on Saturday to round up the city’s famous swans and get them checked out.
“We round up all of our beautiful Lake Eola swans, they get their shots, they get a medical check, they get their wings clipped, we check them all out and make sure everyone is all good,” Sheehan said. “The swan-a-thon is a way that we raise money — all that money goes to the community you trust and then we use all of that money to buy swans, to pay for their veterinary care, to pay for their food and different things like that.”
More than 50 swans call Lake Eola Park home, according to the city. Ranging in breed from trumpeter to black neck swans, whooper to royal mute to Australian black, the big graceful birds were corralled on the water by trained volunteers in paddleboats (kayaks and canoes mostly, not those swan-shaped ones).
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News 6 was there this year as the boaters formed a perimeter and closed in on the swans, which were retrieved one at a time to be weighed, inoculated and given a medical exam at a temporary clinic in the west end of the park.
“Feed them leafy greens,” Sheehan said, offering a word of advice on doing your part to keep the swans healthy. “Don’t bring bread. I know, you may have done it for 20 years — bring leafy greens, or feed from the proper feeders.”
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