Good morning, Netizens...

One must take a giant step down the evolutionary stairs to kill a trumpeter swan. One of the most-beautiful birds in our country where avian beauty often abounds, there is hardly anything more awe-inspiring than watching these swans floating elegantly on the water, and we were graced, as of last year, with having a mated pair of these swans living in Turnbull Wildlife Sanctuary with four cygnets.

The male swan or cob, affectionately nicknamed “Solo” by various people at Turnbull may have been killed recently on the Colville River and I, for one, would seriously like to find the miscreant responsible.

As cold-hearted as it might seem, murdering a swan is much more than simply the death of one of the heaviest, most beautiful birds in all of nature. Murdering a swan requires a depth of depravity that might portray a sociopath living undiagnosed beneath the surface. It is perhaps a little-known fact that such behavior is closely-associated with other major mental health issues, including the entire gamut of malevolent behavior.

Before you resist the idea, stop and think how you might feel if someone were to brutally kill your favorite pet, leaving it floating on the ice-cold water of the Colville River. Anger, outrage and a sense of betrayal would loom, and with these emotions, the urge to find the killer and bring him/her to justice.

I'll quickly concede that violence surrounds us at every turn, including the crap we serve to our young on television, which seems to encourage such unthinking, emotionless actions.

I think, come spring, I'll drive around Turnbull and see if I can locate Solo. Maybe, just maybe I'll get lucky and he'll return.

Dave

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