Anoka County couple rescues swan from frozen lake, discovers it has lead poisoning

Katie Mowan first heard about the stranded trumpeter swan on social media.

"Somebody had posted on our East Bethel Facebook group that there was a swan out on the lake,” she said. “It hadn’t moved and there was another one that was dead."

The swan, out on the middle of Coopers Lake in Anoka County was attracting a lot of attention. Especially since the lake was frozen.

“We went and looked, and it was still out there,” Mowan said. “Didn’t look like anybody had tried to get out to it.”

Finally, after calling several agencies, she and her boyfriend Chris jumped into action. Around 5:30 Saturday evening, they set out onto the lake, using their duck boat to navigate the frozen surface.

"We just kind of pushed ourselves out there using a rake on the ice,” Mowan explains. “Then he kept drilling screws into the ice, and tying off with ropes in case the ice did break, we could pull ourselves onto the ice.”

For 100 yards, they pushed and pushed and pushed until the swan was within reach. But something was very wrong.

The bird made no aggressive moves or noises. It even appeared docile.

"It was just sitting on the ice. It can’t stand up, it can’t walk. It was just kind of pushing itself around,” Mowan said. “It let us grab it, just fine, yeah, and there were three other ones, young ones.”

The couple managed to get the bird back onto dry land and set up a temporary shelter in their heated garage, putting out blankets and bowls of water and food.

They drove it to the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Minnesota in Roseville the next morning.

But what was making the bird so sick?

“One of the top diagnoses is lead poisoning,” said Agnes Hutchinson, a senior veterinarian at the center.

She says swans can be injured by other means, such as flying into power lines. But lead poisoning, she says, is the leading cause of injury.

“Since early October, we’ve received 20 swans so far this season,” Hutchinson says.

One reason, she explains is that swans are lake bottom feeders, finding materials once used for fishing and hunting. An X-ray can reveal how the lead can settle in a bird’s stomach.

"All these lead sinkers, there’s lead ammunition, all these things cause lead poisoning in the animals that ingest lead,” Hutchinson said.

This wasn’t the last time.

By Sunday afternoon, Ben Mau and two friends found yet another swan on Cooper’s Lake.

“We really didn’t know it first, then somebody walked up to us and said there’s a swan stuck out there,” the 13-year old says. “We found him out there and he couldn’t get up or move or fly, falling on his side. So we came back with towels and bread and stuff, and picked him up.”

A family friend drove the swan to the center in Roseville.

Sadly, it had to be euthanized because of its poor condition from lead poisoning.

The swan Mowan brought in is still hanging on, but it, too, has high lead levels.

“Our (lead testing) machine was not able to read it, because the lead was so high, which is a very grave prognosis,” Hutchinson said. “Hopefully he’s stable enough so we can remove the lead pellets out of his stomach.”

The center’s veterinarian team will intubate the swan and flush out the contents of his stomach.

But it’s a delicate balance.

“The longer these lead pellets are in his stomach, the worse his lead is going to be in his blood,” Hutchinson explains.

The next 24 to 48 hours will be critical, she says.

Despite the difficult and sometimes heartbreaking nature of what she does, Hutchinson says she’s grateful for those rescuing these animals.

Trumpeter swans are a protected species, meaning it’s illegal to hunt them.

“I mean, that’s amazing,” she said. “This is exactly the care we’ve seen, especially in a difficult year like 2020. These stories are always uplifting for me and the whole team, that people are at home and care so much for these animals. I’m hoping we can save the swan and return it to its family that’s still there.”

Mowan says she just hopes the swan she and her boyfriend recovered will be OK.

“I probably wouldn’t have been able to sleep last night, if we hadn’t at least attempted to get to it,” she said. “We saw it out there, saw that nobody was able to get out to it, and felt bad for it. We hunt and stuff, but you don’t want to see an animal suffering.”