Should you feed bread to ducks? 'It's better than nothing,' says animal rescuer

Read Story Transcript

A sign erected near a pond in the English town of Buxton has launched a heated debate about whether it's OK to feed bread to ducks.

"IT'S OK TO FEED US BREAD," reads the controversial sign. "Everyone has stopped feeding us because they wrongly think bread will make us poorly and now some of us are dying of starvation without your bread!"

The author of the sign still remains a mystery, although some have mused about whether the ducks themselves posted it. After a Reddit user shared a photo of the sign, the internet exploded with discussion about whether bread is a suitable food for waterfowl, whose natural diets include a wide variety plants, fish, small animals and bugs. 

Even the experts disagree. A spokesperson for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals told the Guardian: "Bread in itself is not the best food to give waterfowl as it fills them up without giving them the nutrients they need."

But animal rescuer Wendy Hermon says bread more than fine, especially considering the alternative. She's the operational manager for SwanSupport, a rescue and treatment charity for swans in the U.K., and she spoke to As It Happens host Carol Off. Here is part of their conversation.

Everyone's seen the signs that say don't do that, don't feed them bread, it's not good for them. Is there any truth to that at all?

No. The original "Ban the Bread" campaign was started last year by [WildThings], a company selling pet food. And obviously people got scared, because [WildThings] was saying [bread] was bad for them. They said it caused "angel wing." 

There's no scientific evidence to suggest that that is the case. We've been working alongside the Queen's Swan Marker and the Queen's Swan Warden, and they issued a statement, to say there's no evidence to prove that it causes any disease in wildfowl. 

You mentioned "angel wing." What is that?

It's like a deformity where the wing will stick out. It can't fly if it's got that. And the wing looks like it's got sticks stuck out the side of it. And it's sort of where the wing grows back to front, and that's not caused by swan's being fed bread. 

[Editor's Note: There have been few studies that examine the causes of angel wing. However, several biologists and veterinarians have linked it to overfeeding, or a diet high in protein and carbohydrates, but low on nutritional value.]

OK, but these signs, warnings not to feed waterfowl bread, that's not just in your area. We see that here. It's been a kind of universal rule. ... So where do you base your conclusion on?

I need to point out, we're not telling people to feed bread alone. We're just telling people who have always fed bread not to stop feeding it. Because we've been feeding swans in our care for 25 years with bread, and they've never died or gotten ill through us feeding them bread. It's better than nothing.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals says bread in itself is not the best food to give the waterfowl, and that you should give them ... corn, bird seed, pieces of lettuce. But people don't usually have that around. What they have is a loaf of bread that's a day old, gone stale, and that's what they're going to bring down to the water, isn't it?

This is what we're trying to say. And the people who have always fed bread can't always afford to go and buy the food, the corn, the pellets. So those people that have always fed bread have completely stopped, because they've been told it's bad for them. So those swans may not be getting fed at all. And they don't, sadly, don't go off and find their own food, so they starve.

Last year, we weighed 25 swans in a flock of swans in Reading, and 25 in Windsor. And three-quarters of those swans were underweight, and a lot of them were half their body weight of what they should've been. 

They're not used to finding their own food. Right or wrong, we have created that situation.

What do you feed the swans and the birds?

We feed them bread, we feed them corn, grains, lettuce, pellets. We don't just obviously feed them bread on its own, but we mix it in with everything else we give them.

Written and produced by Jeanne Armstrong. Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.