Perth man’s ‘disturbing’ Australia Day act with swan

The RSPCA are investigating an extremely “distressing” video allegedly involving a man and a swan.

Wildlife experts are outraged after a man allegedly lifted a swan from the water and over his head in a “disturbing” Australia Day act in Western Australia.

In the video posted to Instagram, the Mandurah man appears to jump from a boat to the swan, picking up its legs and holding it up out of the water while his friends cheer.

WA Seabird Rescue, a not-for-profit rescue group, was told about the video which has also been referred to the RSPCA.

Wildlife advocates are outraged over the alleged “disgusting” actions of a Mandurah man. Picture: Instagram

Rescue volunteer Rachel Olsen told the Nightly the swans are known in the area to approach boats to try and get food.

“Here in the Mandurah estuary, we do have a large population of black swans, and they are very humanised, so unfortunately, people feed them, which means they often come up to the boat,” she said.

She claimed “two swans had approached the boat, and one of the blokes jumped from the boat onto the swan.”

Ms Olsen said the swan was clearly distressed in the footage.

The swans are unique to the area. Picture: Instagram

“We invest a lot of time and energy to try and do what we can for our native wildlife, and it is distressing that we do see huge increases in these types of behaviours over school holidays and public holidays,” Ms Olsen said.

She said these types of incidents unnecessarily added to an already busy time for the wildlife group.

“We had four black swans that were hooked and entangled in one week over Christmas,” Ms Olsen said.

In a media statement, the RSPCA said it was investigating.

“RSPCA WA had received a report about an alleged incident involving a swan on the Mandurah estuary and is investigating,” a spokesman said.

Originally published as Perth man’s ‘disturbing’ Australia Day act with swan