Traverse City Record-Eagle

Marta Hepler Drahos

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July 11, 2011

Marta Hepler Drahos: Disgusting killer

By MARTA HEPLER DRAHOS mdrahos@record-eagle.com

For me, swans will always be evocative of summer vacations at my grandparents' cottage on Lake Leelanau, where we kept bread for their visits.

Nearly every day a pair appeared for the handouts, unfazed by our dog, Susie, who stood guard on the dock in a frenzy of barking until the bolder swan stretched out its neck and hissed.

When I was grown and married and first had a boat of my own, we often encountered swans as we beat the heat on Duck Lake, near our neighborhood.

By then I knew not to feed them and to keep a respectful distance away, though the appearance of fluffy gray cygnets in the spring sometimes made it hard.

Years later, in the same boat but now living in a different county, we regularly spotted swans as we navigated the Leelanau Narrows.

On the recent Fourth of July Sunday we decided to cool off on Elk Lake in Elk Rapids, famous for the massive swan statue that has welcomed visitors since the 1970s.

At first the idea was to motor to Alden by way of the Torch River and Torch Lake by way of Skegemog Lake.

But bow-to-bow traffic on the river made the going so slow that we turned around halfway and headed for Elk Rapids instead. As we made our way back downriver, the boat ahead passed a pair of curious swans protectively flanking their young.

After a late lunch downtown, across the highway from the giant statue, we headed back to the boat launch, taking in one last heady breath of wind and water, one last idyllic view.

Meanwhile, on another water body nearby, the view was anything but idyllic as a man on a personal watercraft bludgeoned a swan to death before a group of horrified onlookers.

The man, old enough to know better, drove too close to a swan family on Grand Traverse Bay, causing the adult male to briefly chase him.

Instead of learning his lesson, the man turned back, taunted the swan and egged it on to defend its young.

It did.

This time the man headed for the dock, where a "friend" handed him an oar.

The man returned and beat the swan as its mate watched.

If I had money, I'd put up a reward for information leading to the identity of macho man.

As it is, I'm hoping someone who knows him does the right thing and turns him in.

I'd like to think his senseless, malicious act will be his swan song.

Reach staff writer Marta Hepler Drahos at mdrahos@record-eagle.com.

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