Swan Sadness

I haven't seen the cygnets around on the river for a while, so I asked another lady who walks her dog around the same time that I take Islay down to the river bank. She knows just about everything about the wildlife and plants along there.
The answer was not what I wanted to hear.
"They've been shot," she said. "All four of them. Boys. If I could get hold of them, I'd shoot them!"