Woman gets ill swan to clinic via foot, car and subway
NEW YORK — Ariel Cordova-Rojas went to New York’s Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge last week to celebrate her 30th birthday.
She ended up rescuing a swan with lead poisoning, taking it to a wildlife clinic by foot, car and subway with the help of both friends and strangers.
Cordova-Rojas is trained in identifying and rescuing wildlife, the New York Times reported, having worked at the Wild Bird Fund clinic in Manhattan for five years.
She got to the Queens wildlife refuge on Nov. 5 and spotted a swan alone in the grass on the side of the water.
She approached it and saw it was unable to walk or fly. She wrapped the 17-pound bird, which she says is named Bae, in her jacket and carried it a mile to the refuge entrance, the newspaper reported.
Calls to various animal rescue services and the ranger stations yielded no immediate assistance. Then a couple with a car agreed to drive the swan and Cordova-Rojas to a nearby subway station. (The couple persuaded yet another friend with a car to help get Cardova-Rojas, her bike and the swan to a subway station.) An employee of Wild Bird Fund met them at the Nostrand station in Brooklyn and helped them get to the organization’s clinic on the Upper West Side. Photos show the swan nestled in an orange jacket on a seat in a train car.
Cordova-Rojas told the Associated Press the swan was being treated for lead poisoning and with antifungals and antibacterial medications. She has made a friend of another swan at the clinic and is gaining strength and mobility.