Experts and commenters disagree on whether it helps or harms ducks and swans

A sign urging people to feed “starving” ducks with bread has gone viral and sparked a heated debate about whether it is in the animals’ best interests.

A neatly designed sign appeared in a park in Buxton, Derbyshire, but the managers of the park denied any responsibility.

Louisa Taylor put a photo of the sign on Facebook, thinking she was “doing a good deed”. Her post was shared more than 17,000 times and she received a barrage of messages demanding she delete her post, which she eventually did.

Sammy j williams (@Sammyjwilliams3) Please feed the ducks pic.twitter.com/OIaGhzmsY2

The photo also appeared on Reddit under the title “I’m confused about duck diet now” and has garnered more than 39,000 likes and 1,500 comments.

Other signs shared on social media in the past have asked people explicitly not to feed ducks with bread, claiming it makes them ill. One sign encouraged people to feed ducks with “half-cut seedless grapes, cooked rice, birdseed ( any type of mix), peas, corn, oats, chopped lettuce”, which was then derided as creating a “new generation of gluten-free hipster ducks”.

Another sign shared to a local Facebook group for mothers, with more than 17,000 members, claimed feeding bread could cause a condition called “angel wing”, which makes ducks unable to fly, as well as “fatal gut and heart disease” in swans.

Even experts seem unable to agree on the matter. A spokesperson for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) said: “It’s always nice to hear that people want to help swans, ducks and geese, however it is important to make sure they are given the right food.

“Bread in itself is not the best food to give waterfowl as it fills them up without giving them the nutrients they need. We recommend people instead give small amounts of grain such as wheat, corn or bird seed, plus fresh chopped greens like cabbage or spinach, as these will supplement the birds’ natural diet and help provide the birds with the necessary nutrients to keep them healthy.”

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) said feeding small amounts of bread to ducks and swans was fine and not harmful, and that it was important that members of the public fed birds, as society becomes increasingly disconnected from nature.

A spokesperson said: “Just like us, birds need a varied diet to stay healthy. Although ducks and swans can digest all types of bread, too much can leave them feeling full without giving them all of the important vitamins, minerals and nutrients they need.

“So, although bread isn’t harmful, our advice is to only feed small amounts to birds. As an alternative we encourage people to use things like sweetcorn, porridge oats, crumbled biscuits and defrosted frozen peas as well as bird seed.”

SwanSupport, a charity that rescues swans, ducks and geese, insists that feeding them bread is fine and told the BBC that many birds died from starvation because people had been discouraged from giving them bread.