To have told these tourists to leave the swans and ducks along

[Want2727]

Prob going to be accused of being racist but here goes
Am currently on holiday in the Lake District in Bowness. As anyone who has been to Bowness knows it attracts lots of Japanese tourists which is obviously great for the area.

Was sat down on a bench feeding the ducks and swans with my sun and about 20 Japanese people walked up and started to try and grab at the ducks and swans to get a picture with them. The last straw was when a swan wandered up with 5 cygnets and one Japanese women grabs a cygnet, and picks it up for a photo. The swan started to give chase and she leaps up on a wall where the swan can’t get to her
I marched up and said in a stern voice “put that cygnet down” the poor cygnet by this time was in a right state.

She looks at me and was going to ignore me till me husband came up behind me and said to her again “put the cygnet down”. She then did. A couple of people watching clap
Her husband/partner came up to us and started shouting at us in Japanese. I just looked at him and said “the swans and ducks are to be looked at not touched it is cruel”
They all then storm off in their group towards the boats.

As we walked past the boat office 5 minutes later they are pointing at us and gesturing at us to one of the boat ticket staff. He comes over and we told him what happened and he said “it’s always happening, a duck was left lame when when a Japanese lady picked one up and then basically chucked it down once a photo has been taken.
I just want to say I know Britain people can also be dicks when it comes to animals but surley something needs to be done to let the toursts know it’s not acceptable to pick up the ducks/ swans/ geese if it keeps happening.

Yanbu. Thank you! Race, ethnicity has nothing to do with it, people should not be manhandling wildlife. How horrific! What is wrong with people who do these things. I'm getting all angry and worked up thinking about it. You did exactly the right thing, standing up for those birds.

I've never known Japanese to do this. Chinese, oh yes. If they tried that in Japan they would've been scolded too.

How sad that the area needs signs in different languages saying "don't be dicks with the animals, they're not toys!". I've seen Japanese treat animals harshly in Japan, however, they don;t usually do anything so blatant in someone else's country. I'd film it next time and send it to one of the main Japanese paper's - sounds crazy, but the shame of poor behaviour by a Japanese is utterly scandalous to them and would probably work better than any sign would.

I think their race isn't really relevant tbh. We go to stay at Ribby Hall and stay by the fishing pond. Every single day there's some kid (British) harassing the ducks, chasing them or throwing stones. Thankfully security there are pretty good at clamping down on it when it happens, but it's regular, different kids, same behaviour.

YWNBU to tell the tourists to back off.

Yep as I said i know the British can be dicks when it comes to animals and Ribby Hall is where I have seen it the most

You were perfectly correct to tackle them the way you did.

What these people are doing is unbelievably stupid and dangerous. Swans are very big and powerful birds and are very territorial, especially when they have cygnets and are in protective mode. A swan could do a very serious injury if provoked to attack.

I live in Essex. There are swans on the River Chelmer in the centre of Chelmsford and they too have cygnets right now. The local council did put up some temporary fencing at the areas where they had chosen to sit on their eggs before the cygnets had hatched, to keep people away as much as possible.

Now that the cygnets have all hatched (and boy are they growing fast!) you see them all swimming along the river together.

I haven't actually seen anyone trying to bother them (though I suppose that doesn't mean it never happens), just watching them. I guess the problem is worse in very touristy areas such as the Lake District. Chelmsford is not so touristy in that way.

As a wildlife enthusiast- thank you for looking out for the birds 👍🏼 The person who picked up the cygnet sounds lucky to get away with just a verbal telling off and not a broken arm off the parent swan.

Want2727 one of the ducklings was killed by a rock this year at Ribby. My DD was absolutely distraught, the parents of the kid who did it couldn't have given less of a shit. I'm afraid I was less than polite when that happened.

Good for you OP.

You're the only one who made this about race. You're right in that you don't fuck with swans. But Yabu to make this about the tourists being foreign.

What were you feeding the ducks?

I know exactly where you mean, I was there last year. The swans do come very close too close as they're used to being fed by idiot tourists and I wondered how many people pester the swans try to get 'good' photos.

YANBU at all, I'm so pleased you said something!

I wish the adult swan had given her a good scare, though. Poor Cygnet!

I assume race is important if their culture means it is more likely that they will do this.

YANBU she was being cruel and stupid. Being pecked and / or being attacked by a swan would have served her right. Some people have no respect especially for animals.

So you did see the signs not to feed the ducks then? But were still feeding them?

I'm in Windermere all the time and I've NEVER seen this. The local paper has also never had a letter in about it and the locals are usually all over this kind of thing. They love a good stupid tourist story.

My future husband is Chinese, the Far East have very different views on animals than western societies.

They aren’t viewed as beings but more objects made for eating or ignoring. It’s actually very awful when we visit his family over there to witness how cruel people can be.

It’s a colossal cultural difference though and unfortunately I don’t think it will change anytime soon, and honestly spot fines and signs won’t have much meaning.

Of course YANBU.

Well done, I would have done worse to them if i witnessed that. Fucking people and the way we treat animals and birds.

I'd have let the mother swan deal with her. She wouldn't have done it twice...

Obviously you did the right thing. It's maddening that people can be so stupid, I'm impressed you remained calm tbh. I once stopped a boy who had grabbed a pigeon's feet and wouldn't let go whilst the poor thing flapped about - his parents were just standing watching. People are idiots.

I think OP said there were signs saying don't feed them bread, assume she was feeding them something different

While I applaud your brave defence of the swan, yelling at people in a foreign language might not have seemed very different to a squaking swan. Also "cygnet" was probably not a familiar word even if some spoke English.

Swans belong to the Crown. If one gets injured it would be deemed as criminal damage as they are someone’s property. Obviously it would be hard to prove unless you had a photo of the person hurting the swan and caught them. Ducks would be cruelty to animals

Stuckforthefourthtime

Prob going to be accused of being racist...

You were right to intervene. Don't entirely see why you need to mention race or nationality at all though, let alone up front and repeatedly though

From other posts saying this is the way Japanese people behave it is relevant. If OP had just said tourists people would be saying how odd and OP would have the had to mention the Japanese bit

Absolutely brilliant you said something. I would have too. Birds are quite magical - and what an honour it is for us to live with them- and not there to be harassed by humans. Especially when tending youngsters. It’s such a hard and stressful time for them already.

I've witnessed this first hand at Bowness and it's awful.

We were in Windermere recently and saw the exact same thing. DH and I were appalled by the behaviour of some of the tourists from other cultures.

In addition to the swan grabbing, one tried to jump on the moving steam train for a photo and had to be physically pushed off before they were crushed!