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News-Sentinel.com Your Town. Your Voice.
Opening Arguments

Swan song

Does this bother anybody else?

And, Van was receptive to the DNR's plan to handle the swans by destroying eggs in the spring.

"It's better then shooting them," Van said. "I'm happy with that solution. It's a good compromise. If they can convince me that the swans really are hurting the lake, then I say shoot them or whatever you have to do, but you have to convince me of that before I change my mind."

So, the mute swans are seen as a pesty problem, and the DNR announces a killing program. People get up in arms -- "How could you be so cruel to these beautiful creatures?" -- and the DNR responds with a "non-lethal program" that involves destroying as much of the next generation of swans as it can, and people are all right with that. Seems like it's not about the swans at all, but about people just wanting to be able to keep seeing the swans, at least for now. Kinda selfish?

Posted in: Hoosier lore

Comments

Barry
Fri, 10/06/2006 - 5:13am

Yeah, perhaps some selfishness is involved, but I think it's less complicated than that. Some of us just have a "soft spot" for animals. (I suppose in a Randian sense, this is a selfish preference.) Even those who recognize the danger that introduced species, like the mute swan, pose to native wildlife are still squeamish about putting a bounty on them. (Australia is having a problem with rabbits, among other introduced species. Rabbits are devastating certain ecosystems there, and yet people are still (understandably, I think) reluctant to see a rabbit holocaust.)

So it seems like the DNR's "non-lethal" solution is a wise and humane one. No animals are killed, yet in a few years our mute swan problem will have been solved. Or largely mitigated. (Hopefully.)

Just don't tell the pro-lifers, or we'll have to debate the viability of those eggs.

Bob G.
Fri, 10/06/2006 - 5:18am

A shame they don't let me deal with my neighborhood "pesty problems"in a similar manner.....(it's better than SHOOTING them, and cheaper)...lol!

((good thing MAN doesn't "hurt the environemt" like those nasty swans do, eh?))

Just don't tell PETA about this....'K?

;)

B.G.

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