AP - WICHITA, Kan. - A sixth-grader stabbed to death a mother duck and two ducklings that had nested near a school, distressing the other children and alarming officials who said the boy needs mental health treatment.

Students at Wilbur Middle School had named the mother duck Lucy and were monitoring her and her brood, making sure no one disturbed the nest in a grassy creek bed. Their mutilated bodies — stabbed with a pencil — were found this week.

An announcement over the public address system led the boy to admit the killings, officials said. They said he had also talked about the act to classmates and didn’t understand why it was wrong.

…

Wilbur students and staff held a ceremony Thursday “to share their grief for these animals,” [mental health crisis coordinator Liz] McGinness said.

jay: snakes, snails, puppy dog tails, and murderous impulses. though maybe he was making a statement about the animal condition and human hypocrisy. we eat chicken, don’t we? and shoot duck for sport? cheney does it with scalia (with shotguns, in the duck blind), why can’t i do it (with a pencil, in the grassy creek bed)? why do these ducks get to live while so many others should die? sometimes it’s hard to put things into words when you’re an enraged 10-year-old. or maybe he’s just nuts and felt like killing something.

dan: i don’t know, jay. kid looks like a pretty textbook sociopath. but i’m not sure we know the whole story, either. sometimes, ducks have it coming.

this entry was posted on Saturday, May 5th, 2007 at 8:26am and is filed under animal wrongs. you can follow any responses to this entry through the rss 2.0 feed. you can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.