aibu to think they knew stealing two swans from the park to eat is illegal?

[inneedofsomehelpplz]

watched emergency animal rescue & the rspca were called as two men were seen taking two swans home from the park - the rspca went to the house & eventually someone turned up to translate. they stated that they bought birds to release in the park for their kids to play with. so why was there a swans head in the bin along with feathers & poor swans were cooking in a pot. if they didnt think theyd doneanything wrong, why lie?

swans are amazing creatures & aibu to think that they shouldve been arrested & charged?

[Crumbledwalnuts]

It does take a while to fit in to your new home and new country. But you begin (I've done this) by finding out how things work in your new home, and you respect that, not just the legal / illegal stuff but the cultural norms as well. It's just what you do when you go to live abroad. Isn't that obvious?

[PasswordProtected]

It is swan upping. You tup rams to show which ewe has been covered ;-)
I have eaten swan, it was many years ago & the swan in question had been obtained legally. It tasted like a cross between goose and chicken.
Swans can be quite vicious, if they feel threatened, and it is best not to upset them if you are at the sharp end of an eight as you have nowhere to go - other than for a fast swim!

[mrsmalcolmreynolds]

Birdsgottafly - you're not quite right re: ignorance being a defence. For most crimes there needs to be an element of intention to do whatever it is the crime involves - it's technically called the mens rea. However that is not the same thing as knowing that what you're doing is against the law. So for example the mens rea for theft is an intention to permanently deprive the person of whatever it is you've taken. Provided you meant to do that and did in fact take the item, you'd be guilty of theft even if (unlikely I realise!) you didn't realise that it was a crime.

End of pedantic law lecture. ..

[specialsubject]

I'm rather impressed that they managed to 'take swans home'. They are BIG and aggressive.

[SubliminalMassaging]

Ratters I used to live opposite a private fishing lake and exactly the same thing happened there as well! They had to put signs up in Polish!

[BlingBang]

At least they ate them rather than just killed them for fun. We had two Swans killed in a local park just for the hell of it. Think they're were cygnets left behind as well.

[Szeli]

william can't say I've ever noticed peacocks at the uni - maybe there's been a couple of massive feasts recently..

[nicename]

At least they didn't start whinging about it being their 'right' to eat swan.

I can't for the life of me think how anyone could look at a swan and think 'hmmm, bigger than a chicken...'

[digerd]

Swans are usually in pairs and mate for life. At this time of year they are still rearing and protecting their young. Even experienced rspca workers have difficulty catching a swan.

We have a widowed swan with 6 cygnets on our canal bank this year and wonder what happened to its life-long mate .
The males do sometimes fight to the death over territory. Females do not get involved as, sensibly, stay back protecting their young. I was watching 2 families once with the males just circling round each other with shows of machoness. The female opposite my garden got fed up and took her babies back to the nest to await the return of her mate