Please stop killing our local wildlife

Dear Public: Please don't feed the birds. No, really. DON'T feed them. You may think you are helping them, but you are not. You are hurting them. Even killing them.

- M.L. BREAM

Consider the recent case of a trumpeter swan family at Bluffer's Park in Scarborough. In June, the parents, known locally as Mango and Charlotte, hatched five cygnets.

Three of the young birds were lost over the early part of the summer, likely to predation. (A normal and common outcome for birds in the wild.) Then, in August, the remaining two cygnets were taken away from their parents in the hope of saving their lives. Both young birds had developed a condition called "angel wing," a deformity that left untreated would leave them unable to fly.

In this malformation, the last joint (wrist) in one or both wings twists outward instead of lying flat against the body, as nature intended. This rotation of the affected feathers renders the afflicted bird flightless.

And a flightless bird is soon a dead bird.

While the exact pathology of angel wing remains unclear, most wildlife and waterfowl experts agree that a diet unnaturally high in protein and carbohydrates contributes overwhelmingly to its development.