Posted on 04/16/2012 10:05:40 AM PDT by TSgt
A Chicago man who neighbors say was devoted to caring for the swans at a Chicago area apartment complex might have paid for that devotion with his life. Anthony Hensley, 37, apparently died this weekend during a freak accident after a swan attack.
Police say Hensley was in a kayak on a pond at the apartment complex checking on swans. Officials said he either got too close to the swans, or their nest, when one of the birds swam towards his kayak, and the kayak flipped over. “His kayak wasn’t upside down, but it was, like, upwards,” eyewitness Daniel Gamanov said “You could see the tip of it.”
Gamanov saw the tragedy unfold right outside his family’s apartment Saturday morning. He and his friends watched as Hensley’s body was pulled from the pond. It was Hensley’ job to care for the swans. “They probably thought that he was going too close to their eggs, and they were too scared, and they just attacked him,” Gamanov said.
He was awakened by a witness pounding on his apartment window, screaming for someone to call police. By the time he looked out, he could see the kayak, but could see no sign of Hensley.
Witnesses said Hensley came up at least once after his kayak tipped in the pond, but by the time police finally pulled him out of the water, more than a half hour had passed. An autopsy Sunday afternoon determined Hensley drowned.
According to his father, Hensley was a good swimmer, but he ended up in the water while fully clothed and wearing boots. To make the situation worse, police said the swans continued to swim at Hensley as he tried to make it to shore.
Hensley leaves behind a wife and two young daughters.
Now that they’ve lost their protector, dinner!
"Run away!! Run away!!"
If Obama had a pet bird, it would look like that swan.
A swan song conducted by an actual swan.
“but by the time police finally pulled him out of the water, more than a half hour had passed”
When seconds count. the police are only half an hour away!
So for half an hour the citizenry was completely and totally helpless?
These are the people who will not survive a week if the SHTF.
Helpless and hapless.
>>>Swans should be banned.
Ban is a little to far. Need a Waiting period, mandatory education & safety classes too. And Swan licensing.
If the guy can’t swim, what the heck is he doing out there without a life jacket? ESPECIALLY IN A KAYAK!?
>>>So for half an hour the citizenry was completely and totally helpless?
>>>These are the people who will not survive a week if the SHTF.
I think Darwin called it Natural Selection.
Just grab them by the neck and pull them underwater!
I suspect it was a cob and not a swan. In the 1920’s a man in Methuen, Massachusetts drown in shallow water after being attacked by a cob defending cygnets. (The man must have acted in a manner that appeared to be threatening to the cob.) Swans are BIG and attack by beating their victims with the elbow joints on their wings. They can inflict serious injury.
My son-in-law was fishing in the Charles River in Natick, when he glanced to his right and noticed a cob standing on tiptoes next to him raising his wings menacingly. My s-i-l got the message and backed away.
Swans can be NASTY. Years ago there was a case of swans drowning a jet-ski rider. I'd guess under similar circumstances when he got too close to a nest.
The guy had a kayak paddle, too, which is a good weapon against swans.
Swans can be pretty intimidating. But nothing is as scawey as a wabbit.
SHTF ? Swans hit the fan ?
We had a family of swans at a nearby lake where we lived in Connecticut. They were mean as hell, and you’d have to be nuts to go near where they nested, out on a tiny rocky island.
That said, why wasn’t this guy wearing a life preserver? And why did his neighbors just stand there watching for half an hour, without doing anything?
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